Dr Michelle Dickenson: nanotechnologist on a new hormone injection that could counteract alcohol intoxication

If I was going to be a lab rat - I think I'd like to be these lab rats! A hormone injection that sobers up mice might offer hope for treating drunk humans according to a paper published this week in the journal Cell Metabolism. In the experiments, researchers gave mice so much alcohol that they fell unconscious and weren’t able to get back up when they were pushed onto their back (known as the righting reflex).  The hormone being tested is naturally produced and called Fibroblast growth factor 21 or FGF21. In the mice that were bred not to make this hormone they stayed drunk for longer than ‘normal’ mice that could produce FGF21.   Interestingly when the normal mice were given an injection containing FGF21 they sobered up an hour and a half faster than the other mice.  The researchers think that FGF21 helps to activate nerve cells in the parts of the brain that are involved with simulating wakefulness and while FGF21 doesn’t help to break down alcohol in the body, it does help to protect livers from the toxic effects of alcohol while also reducing the animals desire to continue drinking.  Humans have the same FGF21 pathway as mice, which means these findings might help to create a treatment for patients with acute alcohol poisoning.  These patients are at a high risk of choking by aspirating their own vomit while  intoxicated, and the researchers believe that being able to increase a patients alertness could significantly reduce this risk.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.