Posted on 08/11/2005 2:15:09 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Finding in fruit flies may yield new treatments
Hard-drinking fruit flies have helped U.S. and German scientists uncover a gene that may shed light on humans' tolerance to alcohol.
The gene -- named hangover by its discoverers -- is part of a genetic pathway that enables the flies to deal with increasing amounts of alcohol, according to researchers.
They also believe this mechanism can lead to alcohol dependence and addiction.
The finding may be important because "identifying the genes you inherit that relate to your tolerance to alcohol helps us understand how genes set you up for a vulnerability to alcoholism," said Dr. James Garbutt, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina.
Garbutt was not involved in the study, which was led by Ulrike Heberlein, an associate professor of anatomy at the University of California at San Francisco. Her team's report appears in the Aug. 11 issue of Nature.
In their experiments, Heberlein's group found that flies without the hangover gene didn't develop a tolerance to alcohol when exposed to increased amounts of ethanol (alcohol) vapor.
In addition, the team found that the flies missing this gene also have poor responses to other stresses, such as higher temperatures. This suggests that the hangover gene might also play a role in dealing with stressful conditions, the researchers report.
Heberlein's group believes a similar genetic pathway might exist in people. This suggests that alcohol addiction may be triggered by how people respond to high alcohol intake, the researchers say. This finding could lead to new understandings of how alcoholism develops in humans, they add.
Garbutt thinks the findings are interesting, but may not be applicable to people.
"The fruit fly is a great model for lots of things," he said. "The question is how will it play out in the human being?"
Garbutt believes alcohol tolerance in people is more complicated than just one gene, and does not depend on one or two genetic systems alone. It is an open question whether this discovery will help explain alcohol tolerance in humans, he said.
People's alcohol tolerance is most likely genetically controlled, Garbutt said. "There is good evidence that alcoholism has a strong genetic component," he added. "One of the risk factors in human alcoholism is the ability to tolerate alcohol when you first start drinking. There are some clues about genes associated with that."
This research is important, Garbutt said, because it could point to new methods of identifying a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. "Moreover, if you understand the biology, then we might be able to develop pharmacological tools that can treat somebody who has already developed alcoholism," he added
Thus another step forward to making alcoholism a condition to be pitied and understood, and not a moral failing to be condemned and striven against.
Gene Who?
Wilder?
Simmons?
Roddenberry?
I definitely do not have this gene.
In other developments it's been discovered that hockey players who get smashed from behind into the boards have a gene for concussion.
I know my limit when I drink...It's just that I pass out before I reach it!
Alcohol resistance could be increased [within limits] by persistent training [it is called "spiritual exercises"]. Thus you could grow that gene.
They should wait until after the game to get smashed.
An American, Brit, and Scot enter a bar and all order a pint of stout. At the same time in each pint a fly lands. The American pushes his pint away in disgust. The Brit calmly removes the fly and continues quaffing his pint. The Scot grabs the and begins shaking him over the pint glass shouting "spit it out damn ya spit it out!"
LOL PING !!!
"Smashed" must have been a Freudian slip. But somehow it fits the situation.
Indeed. Ignorance is always preferable to understanding something.
More junk science. Everything is caused by genetics or viruses. Because that's the only thing they research. And it's only going to get worse, because the med/sci establishment is socialized.
"Man drink like that, he gonna die!"
(Gene Wilder)
"When?
I was a member of Uncle Sam's Big Gray Canoe Club for 12+ years. That was 12 years of intensive "training," and I never developed the least bit of tolerance. I was a lightweight when I started and a lightweight when I stopped trying to develop the "gene".
Well...Maybe not.
If you are fortunate enough to be among those who do not "tolerate" alcohol, then you will never be faced with the dilemma of having to discipline yourself to avoid it.
Some people just become very sleepy after a drink or two and find themselves seeking a place to sleep long before becoming intoxicated. Others, who are tolerant of alcohol, are able to consume alcohol for hours on end to the exclusion of sleep or food. The state of intoxication simply keeps rising, possibly getting to the point of lethal poisoning.
How do I know this? Suffice it to say that I have not had a drink in almost thirty years. For some very good reasons.
We may be faced someday with the perfect intoxicant. One which conveys feelings of happiness, contentment, and joy with none of the side-effects normally associated with such drugs. What then? Will there still be a moral stigma attached to getting "high" if there is no violence or negligent activity as a consequence?
Well, I don't know about perfect but an occasional bong hit never hurt me any.
Of course the WOD Lifestyle Nazis will be along shortly to answer the second part of your question.
Alcoholism is a disease BS ping
Moral failing, huh? Geez...if alcoholism were a "moral failing," then I should think it would strike Liberals almost exclusively.
Willful ignorance. Now that is a true moral failing.
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