If you like to have a drink with friends every now and then but don't want to get drunk, then a new gel might be just what you're looking for. The ingestible substance is said to help prevent alcohol from entering the bloodstream, And damage the liver.
Usually, alcohol enters the bloodstream through the mucous membranes that line the inside of the stomach and intestines. It then passes to the liver, where it is metabolized first to a toxic chemical compound called acetaldehyde, and then to relatively harmless acetic acid.
Unfortunately, even though acetaldehyde converts to acetic acid fairly quickly, it can still cause a lot of damage to the liver – and other parts of the body – when present. Additionally, if large amounts of alcohol are consumed over a short period of time, they cannot be fully metabolized quickly enough, leading to intoxication.
This is where the new experimental gel comes in.
Developed by scientists at the Swiss university ETH Zurich, it consists of glucose, gold nanoparticles and nanofibers derived from whey proteins coated with iron atoms. It can be consumed before, during, or shortly after drinking, as long as it is present while the alcohol is still in the intestinal tract.
Fortunately, the gel itself is digested quite slowly and therefore stays in the tract long enough to do its job. This work begins with the reaction of glucose and gold particles inside the body, producing hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide in turn triggers a series of enzymatic reactions – stimulated by the iron atoms – which transform any alcohol that may be present into directly in acetic acid. This happens before the alcohol has a chance to enter the bloodstream.
In laboratory tests, the gel was administered prophylactically to mice given a single dose of alcohol. In 30 minutes, the blood alcohol level of these mice fell by 40% compared to a control group that did not receive the gel. This figure increased to 56% after five hours.
It was also found that the treated mice had less acetaldehyde in their system and had significantly less stress in their livers. Human trials are now planned.
“It is healthier not to drink alcohol at all,” says lead scientist Professor Raffaele Mezzenga. “However, the gel could be particularly interesting for people who don't want to give up alcohol completely, but don't want to put a strain on their body and aren't actively seeking the effects of alcohol.”
An article on the research was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Source: ETH Zurich