Dr Gabriel UguruHave you ever had one too many drinks that you become inebriated and did something you later regretted? Well, cheer up, chances are that soon enough, you might be able to drink to your heart’s content without ever getting drunk. Scientists have just discovered that a hormone called FGF21, which is naturally produced in the liver in response to alcohol, is capable of curing drunkenness. When a shot of this hormone is given to drunken mice, they quickly sobered up. Magic! Keep pouring me that drink, please.
Naturally, the body contains a set of enzymes that breakdown alcohol into carbon dioxide and water. An enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, is the first enzyme that acts on alcohol in the liver, breaking it down to acetaldehyde, which is a carcinogenic compound. Acetaldehyde in turn is broken down by aldehyde dehydrogenase into a less toxic acetate. Eventually the acetate is reduced to carbon dioxide and water in other tissues.
Alcohol dehydrogenase has been reported to be either lost or extremely low in strict herbivores and carnivores not used to alcohol exposure, making it difficult for them to breakdown alcohol if they encounter it – anything you don’t use atrophies!
Writing in the March 2023 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, Steven Kliewer and coworkers reported that a hormone in the liver called fibroblast growth factor 21 or FGF21, may hold the key to preventing drunkenness. In the liver, FGF21 is involved in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism and is known to play a role in delaying cellular aging.
Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), is reported to be produced most often when we consume alcohol, are starved, or are subsisting on diets low in protein. In intoxicated mice, it increases the urge to drink water, thus, pointing to its potential use in preventing dehydration when drunk. The hormone also reduces the urge to drink alcohol as well as protects the liver against alcoholic injury.
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In the study, mice lacking the ability to produce FGF21, due to a gene knockout of the hormone, were given a shot of alcohol, while drunken regular mice were given a shot of FGF21. The rate of alcohol catabolism (or alcohol clearance in the blood), was the same for both test mice. The mutant mice lacking the FGF21, stayed drunk for longer than the regular mice given a shot of the hormone. But when the hormone was complemented in drunken mutant mice by giving them a shot of FGF21, they sobered up about 90 minutes faster than control drunk mice without any extra shot of the hormone.
To test for drunkenness in humans, the police will ask you to walk a straight-line heel-to-toe for nine steps, then turn, and walk back. Or the police officer might ask you to stand on one foot and start counting from 1 until he asks you to stop and put your foot down. Naturally, if you are drunk, one of the signs is that you will lose your balance. If this happens, then the customary breath test (or breathalyser test) follows. But in this study, inebriation was defined by the inability of the mice to maintain balance and flip onto their feet when placed on their back (i.e. loss of the “righting reflex”).
A modulatory neurotransmitter called the noradrenergic nervous system is located in the locus ceruleus of the brain. The locus is important in regulating cognition, arousal, vigilance, and stress. The researchers discovered that the liver is able to interact with the brain through alcohol-induced activation of the noradrenergic neurones by the FGF21 hormone. By this interaction, FGF21 confers on the brain protection against the negative effects of alcohol like inebriation and coordination. But the actual pathway/s involved in this FGF21-induced liver-brain interaction, was not shown. However, it is thought that the pathway is an evolutionary adaptation to protect against alcohol-induced intoxication. This makes the FGF21 hormone attractive as therapy for treating alcoholism.
Can the FGF21 hormone also be effective in damping the effects of other intoxicants like hard drugs? The answer is no. The hormone only acts on alcohol-induced intoxication.
Therefore, if the purpose of having a drink is to forget depressive reality for a moment, this study may not be of much use to you. But if you are aiming to avoid getting charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, yes, this study is a welcome solution.
I envision a future when we could have this conversation:
“You are drunk, sir.”
“No, ma’m, I will just have a shot of FGF21, and I shall be right as rain.”
In the meantime, eat, drink, and be merry…. for tomorrow shall take care of itself. Burrrp! Pardon me.
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