Researchers have discovered a compound that can repair a defective alcohol metabolism enzyme, a discovery published last month on the online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, suggesting the possibility of treatment for those affected by the inactive enzyme.
If you experience flushed cheeks, nausea and rapid heartbeat while drinking beer or wine, you are not alone but a part of a billion people in the word, most of them in East Asia. You cannot digest alcohol due to an inherent defective alcohol metabolism enzyme. You suffer from a particular type of alcohol intolerance; an inability to safely digest and metabolize alcohol.
For people like you, a genetic mutation produces an inactive form of the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), which is responsible for breaking down the toxic elements in a molecule of alcohol.
The researchers, working with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and led by biochemistry and molecular biology professor Thomas D. Hurley of the Indiana University School of Medicine, have identified a molecule called Alda-1 that activates the defective enzyme when alcohol is present. It helps break down toxic compounds that could otherwise inflict damage on DNA.
This intriguing finding could have broad public-health implications," including treatments to reduce cellular damage during a heart attack.
Alda-1 binds to the structure of the inactive ALDH2 enzyme and allows the enzyme to metabolize alcohol as it would in someone who does not have the mutation. If this is developed into a treatment, the person could drink without alcohol intolerance side effects. Alda-1 could also have another use: fighting hangovers, the researchers say. Many hangover symptoms are due to aldehyde build-up, which ALDH2 can reduce.
If you are intrigued and still interested to know more, read details in Wine Spectator. |
