科学家研制新型解酒药 助你“千杯不醉”

If after-work drinks tend to leave you clinging with embarrassment the next morning, help could be at hand.

Scientists are developing a ‘stay sober’ pill which may spare the blushes of those who get drunk too easily, by limiting the effects of alcohol on their brains.

In a fascinating experiment, mice given the drug did not even get tipsy, despite being fed enough alcohol to make them stumble and fall over.

The research paves the way for a tablet that stops people from making fools of themselves on a night out.

It could help explain why some drinkers are ‘cheap dates’ who start slurring their words and losing their inhibitions after one glass of wine, while others can knock back glass after glass with few ill effects.

The American and Australian scientists who carried out the research focused on the way alcohol affects glial cells, which make up 90 per cent of the brain.

They play a crucial role in the immune system, helping to fight infections such as meningitis. In the experiment, shutting off this immune response produced a remarkable effect – it stopped the mice who were given alcohol from getting drunk the British Journal of Pharmacology reported.

Not only were the animals’ reflexes far better, they also found it much easier to balance and walk than animals whose brain immune cells were allowed to work normally, the British Journal of Pharmacology reports.

University of Adelaide researcher Mark Hutchinson said: ‘When a mouse gets drunk, it is quite similar to a human that’s drunk. It can’t work its motor co-ordination properly. If you stop these immune cells from working, the animals didn’t get drunk.’

The University College London researchers hope it will be on sale over the counter within three years.

工作之余的酒局让你第二天早晨很尴尬？还在为此烦恼吗？别担心，新研制的“千杯不醉”解酒药可以帮你摆脱烦恼。

科学家正研制一种“醒酒药”，可以通过抑制酒精对大脑的影响，帮助那些不胜酒力的人摆脱醉酒的烦恼。

在醉酒实验中，尽管小白鼠被灌了足够使它们东倒西歪甚至跌倒的酒量，但由于服用了新型药物，甚至都没有摇晃。

该研究为研制解酒药铺平了道路，这样人们再不用担心节日的夜晚喝醉后出洋相了。

该试验也帮助人们搞清楚了为什么有些人会不胜酒力，一杯酒下肚后就胡言乱语、无法自控；而还有些人却连饮数杯后还神态自若。

来自美国和澳大利亚的科学家开展了此项研究，他们的研究重点是占大脑组织90%的神经胶质细胞。

神经胶质细胞对免疫系统而言至关重要，可以帮助抵抗脑膜炎等感染。试验显示，关停神经胶质细胞的免疫反应效果显著，可以防止小白鼠醉酒。研究结果发表在《英国药理学杂志》上。

科学家还发现，关停免疫反应后，小白鼠不仅看起来没有醉意，而且比普通小白鼠平衡能力更强，走路更平稳。

阿德莱德大学的研究人员马克•哈金森说：“小白鼠喝醉和人喝醉很相似，运动协调性会变得很差。如果阻止了免疫细胞的活动，小白鼠就不会醉酒。”

伦敦大学学院的研究人员希望这种药物可以在三年内面市。