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.
A coalition of civil rights groups on Tuesday asked a New York State judge to order one of its largest suburban counties to stop its deployment of nearly 600 license plate readers, calling it a warrantless and “indiscriminate surveillance system” that violates the state constitution. The class action lawsuit also alleged that Westchester County never got proper authorization to launch the program, which has amassed a database of 1.6 billion plate scans that has been shared with more than 50 outside law enforcement agencies. The complaint said the network “records the long-term travel patterns, daily habits, and intimate information of millions of
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday blessed a giant new tower at Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia Basilica after celebrating mass inside what is now the world’s tallest church. A fireworks and light show illuminated the exterior of the temple at the end of the ceremony, bathing the unfinished basilica in shifting colours that highlighted its towering spires. A choir of 600 singers performed at the service which lasted around 90 minutes and was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as well as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. The stained-glass windows in various colours shone brightly in between the tree-like
Voters in Switzerland yesterday cast their ballots on an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the Alpine country’s population at 10 million. As of press time last night, early results showed that Swiss voters were leaning against it. The populist Swiss People’s Party, which has the most seats in parliament, has stirred up and fostered anti-migration sentiment over the years, notably about an influx of workers from the neighboring EU. Critics called the bid a self-inflicted wound, saying the boom in migration over the past generation has brought foreign labor and skills to sectors such as healthcare, finance, pharmaceuticals
Scientists have discovered communities of marine life — including jellyfish, tubeworms and brittle stars — thriving on a whale graveyard. The graveyards form when whale carcasses fall to the sea floor, becoming a sustaining snack for nearby critters. This one, which is up to 7km below the surface of the southeastern Indian Ocean, spans the largest area, and is so far the deepest found. A whale’s sheer size and the unique chemistry of its bones are the keys to forming these unique underwater neighborhoods, said Song Xikun (宋希坤), a biologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering
RSS