A six-year study on alcohol effects in worms has led to discoveries that might make it possible for intoxicated people to sober up quickly, and could lead to new treatments for alcoholism
Drinkers might have cause this festive season to raise a glass to a discovery which could lead to the development of a "sober-up" drug that instantly restores composure and good behavior after a night on the tiles.
US researchers have identified a single brain protein that appears to be chiefly responsible for people getting drunk.
They believe the discovery could make it possible to develop a drug that limits the effect of alcohol and quickly sobers up a person.
The research could also pave the way to better forms of treatment for people with drinking problems.
Although the intoxication mechanism was identified in a laboratory worm, the same protein exists in humans.
The way that alcohol acts on the brain is thought to be similar throughout the animal kingdom. Species ranging from worms and flies to mice and humans get drunk with similar alcohol concentrations, relative to their body size.
The protein, called slo-1, acts as a channel that allows electrically charged potassium atoms, or ions, to pour out of nerve cells.
Alcohol seems to make the channel open more often, leading to reduced neural activity and the sluggish, uncoordinated movements typical of drunkenness.
Dr Steven McIntire, from the University of California at San Francisco, said "We have found that alcohol acts on this channel in nerve cells to cause neural depression and intoxication.
"We would expect that the same process functions in humans, who also have this type of channel."
The scientists said a drug that modified the channel, making it less likely to open in response to alcohol, would have a rapid sobering effect.
The breakthrough followed a six-year study of the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which has about 10,000 genes with counterparts in humans.
Worms lacking the gene that makes slo-1 were found to be virtually unaffected by alcohol, often behaving normally even after a binge that should have left them comatose.
Slo-1 controls what is known as the BK potassium channel -- one of more than 200 "gateways" that regulate cell activity by adjusting the flow of ions in and out of cells.
BK channels are active in nerve, muscle and gland tissue in mammals. They govern the release of chemical messengers in the brain, as well as muscle contraction and hormone secretion.
The scientists tested their theory by finding out whether keeping the BK channel open could induce intoxication even when alcohol was not present.
They used chemicals to produce mutant worms in which the channel opened more often than usual, and found that as predicted the creatures acted as if they were drunk.
Other mutant worms with faulty or absent slo-1 genes were highly resistant to alcohol.
Differences in the degree to which the BK channel reacted to alcohol might explain why some people were more susceptible to drink than others, scientists said.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DISASTROUS VISIT: The talks in Saudi Arabia come after an altercation at the White House that led to the Ukrainian president leaving without signing a minerals deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations today on resolving the three-year conflict would see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelenskiy’s disastrous White House visit last month. Zelenskiy yesterday said that he would meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team.” At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US
RSS