Alcoholism may be in the genes, for flies

Fruit flies carry a gene - aptly named ‘hangover’ - that appears to help them become tolerant to alcohol. Tolerance is thought to promote dependence, so if a similar gene is found in humans, it might lead to drugs to treat or prevent Alcoholism.

In the journal Nature, researchers report that only fruit flies that carry a functioning ‘hangover’ gene develop a tolerance for alcohol.

“If humans have a gene that has a function similar to that of ‘hangover,’ we could interfere with the function of such a gene,” thereby preventing people from developing addiction to, alcohol, study author Dr. Ulrike Heberlein of the University of California at San Francisco told Reuters Health.

However, the researcher cautioned that this is still just speculation.

During the study, Heberlein and colleagues mutated genes in flies, then exposed them to alcohol. “When flies are exposed to ethanol more than once they develop tolerance - i.e., it takes higher alcohol levels to reach the same degree of intoxication,” Heberlein explained. The researchers measured how intoxicated flies become from alcohol using a device called an inebriometer.

The found that flies that lacked a functioning hangover gene did not develop a tolerance to alcohol - meaning that, over time, they did not require more alcohol to become intoxicated.

Co-author Henrike Scholz of the University of Wurzburg in Germany explained that tolerance may lead to addiction because when drinkers become tolerant to the positive effects of alcohol, they need to drink more to feel good. Alternatively, if people become tolerant to the negative effects of alcohol, they can drink more without becoming sick, also increasing consumption, Scholz noted.

And if alcohol alters brain function, it might program the body to believe it can only function in the presence of alcohol, Scholz added. “And therefore the brain might ‘tell’ the human being to continue drinking, although it might not be good for the health of this human being,” the researcher told Reuters Health.

Heberlein explained that the hangover gene in flies encodes for a protein that regulates other genes. It’s not clear which genes are regulated by the hangover gene, but they may help flies respond to outside stressors, such as alcohol, Heberlein noted.

Indeed, the researchers found that flies lacking the hangover gene did not respond as well to heat and cell-damaging free-radicals, supporting the theory that the gene helps protect the body from environmental stress.

SOURCE: Nature, August 11, 2005.

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