Scientists have found success with a hangover pill, made from natural enzymes found in the liver, on drunk mice. They could begin human trials next year.
Can I get an "amen"?
By Sam Brodsky, Metro
There are many hangover cures we seem to live by: electrolyte-loaded
Gatorade or Pedialyte, a good ol' Bloody Mary or perhaps a trip to the
gym to sweat out all that booze and regret (lots of regret). And though
one professor at Penn Medicine told Time in
December that there’s no magic remedy to treat all side effects of one
too many cocktails, scientists have found success with a hangover pill
they've been testing on mice.
UCLA chemical engineering professor (and self-proclaimed "wine
enthusiast") Yunfeng Lu and his team — Keck School of Medicine professor
Cheng Ji and a UCLA grad student — have created a way to significantly
reduce the negative effects of alcohol. Their answer? Capsules filled
with natural enzymes found in liver cells that help you process booze
faster.
Not only would this "help people enjoy wine or cocktails or beer
without a hangover," it would also "create a lifesaving therapy to treat
intoxication and overdose victims in the ER," Lu wrote in an essay
published on The Conversation. Unlike pills on the market consisting of numerous vitamins and minerals, or tablets targeting pain relief, Lu's antidote uses three natural enzymes: alcohol oxidase (AOx), catalase (CAT) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH).
Lu went on to write that they wrapped these enzymes in a shell
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and tested the effects
on intoxicated mice: "We then injected these nanocapsules into the
veins of drunk mice where they hurtled through the circulatory system,
eventually arriving in the liver where they entered the cells and served
as mini–reactors to digest alcohol."
The results were promising: Mice who received the hangover pill
experienced a 45 percent decrease in their blood alcohol level in just
four hours compared to mice who didn’t get the pill.
Lu also noted that blood concentration of acetaldehyde, "a highly
toxic compound that is carcinogenic, causes headaches and vomiting,
makes people blush after drinking, and is produced during the normal
alcohol metabolism," stayed very low. The mice given these enzymes woke
from "alcohol-induced slumber" faster than the poor mice who hadn't
received them.
This team is undergoing tests to make sure the hangover pill doesn’t
trigger side effects, and if they’re deemed safe for humans, clinical
trials will start as early as next year.
The pills, which have the "ability to efficiently break down alcohol
quickly, should help patients wake up earlier and prevent alcohol
poisoning," Lu concluded. "It should also protect their liver from
alcohol-associated stress and damage." He may have answered our prayers —
and maybe you'll be able to say bye-bye to Bloody Mary mornings after
all.
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