According to Smithsonian, between eight and 10 percent of emergency room visits in America are due to acute alcohol poisoning. On top of that, alcohol is the leading risk factor for premature deaths and disability among people between the ages of 15-49. Alcohol abuse can lead to serious health problems, such as cardiovascular and live disease. Yunfeng Lu, Professor Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, looked at all these facts and decided to design an antidote that could help people enjoy alcohol without a hangover, but at the same time, create a lifesaving therapy to treat intoxication and overdose victims in the ER.
Along with Cheng Ji, a professor and expert in liver diseases from Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and Lu’s graduate student Duo Xu, Lu developed an antidote and tried it out on drunk mice. The treatment decreased the blood alcohol level of inebriated mice by 45 percent in just four hours compared to mice that didn’t receive any. The animals woke up faster than their untreated counterparts as well.
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