 12-16-2003, 12:27 AM | #1 |
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Source: http://content.health.msn.com/conten...e/78/95777.htm Quote: Alcohol Intoxication Gene Found In Worms
Finding May Lead to Sobriety Pill
By Daniel DeNoon
Reviewed By Charlotte Grayson, MD
on Thursday, December 11, 2003
WebMD Medical News
Dec. 11, 2003 -- An intoxication gene controls whether alcohol makes one drunk, worm studies show.
Alcohol has no effect on worms lacking the gene. But worms with a revved-up version of the gene act drunk even if they haven't touched a drop of alcohol, report Steven L. McIntire, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco.
McIntire's team spent six years looking for genes that affect roundworm responses to alcohol. At last they found a gene called slo-1, which controls a chemical message circuit in the brain. That circuit, the BK channel, is also found throughout the human body.
"We have found that alcohol acts on this channel in nerve cells to cause neural depression [slowing of nerve function] and intoxication," McIntire says in a news release. "We would expect that the same process functions in humans."
The implication is a drug might be found that could change the effect of alcohol on the BK channel. That might quickly sober someone up after a bout of drinking. It might also help alcoholics lose their taste for drinking.
"Until we conduct human studies, we can't say for sure whether this channel or the pathways involving this channel are defective in alcoholics -- but this is a highly attractive target [for developing new drugs]," McIntire says. "We now know it is central to the intoxicating effects of alcohol."
The study appears in the Dec. 12 issue of Cell. | [ December 16, 2003, 12:27 AM: Message edited by: DARTH BOWSER ] |
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