Pill to cure hangovers could be on way after mouse breakthrough
It’s something that drinkers have prayed for – a single pill which cures hangovers, banishing the nausea, headaches and self-loathing before they start.
And it could finally be round the corner, thanks to University of California researchers.
The treatment already works on drunk mice, delivering enzymes which turbo-charge the process of breaking down alcohol in the liver.
The pill decreases blood alcohol level by 45% in four hours – and reduces levels of alcohol’s toxic byproduct, acetaldehyde, thought to be behind some of the really gross symptoms of hangovers.
Its makers believe it could help with hangovers – and could help treat cases of alcohol poisoning in hospitals.
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Yunfeng Lu of the University of California said that the breakthrough came via a way of delivering the enzymes directly to the liver.
Lu wrote on The Conversation, ‘To protect the enzymes, we wrapped each of them in a shell, using a material already approved for pills. 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.
‘We showed that in inebriated mice (which fall asleep much faster than drunk humans), the treatment decreased the blood alcohol level by 45 percent in just four hours compared to mice that didn’t receive any.
‘Meanwhile, the 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 – remained extremely low.’
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