Cheers to no hangovers! This new probiotic could reduce alcohol's negative effects

Good news! I toast to that! 🥂

"... scientists have developed a genetically modified probiotic that accelerates the metabolism of alcohol and safeguards the liver against alcohol-induced harm. The study was carried out on mice and suggests that this breakthrough might one day potentially alleviate hangover symptoms in humans, the researchers said. ...
The findings showed that the treatment reduced alcohol absorption and increased the mice’s alcohol tolerance. ...
Additionally, it reduced the severity and duration of their hangovers. The probiotic also led to lower levels of lipids and triglycerides in the mice’s livers, both of which contribute to alcohol-related liver damage. ..."

From the abstract:

"Alcohol is an essential drug in human life with multiple medical functions, but excessive alcohol intake, even a single episode of binge drinking, can cause serious damage. Reducing alcohol consumption or absorption is a direct way to alleviate the related harm. Alcohol is decomposed successively by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in the liver. Here, we produced a human ADH1B (hADH1B)-expressing probiotic, a recombinant Lactococcus lactis, that aimed to enhance alcohol degradation in the intestinal tract after oral administration. Our results showed that the oral hADH1B-expressing probiotic reduced alcohol absorption, prolonged the alcohol tolerance time, and shortened the recovery time after acute alcohol challenge. More importantly, the liver and intestine were protected from acute injury caused by alcohol challenge. Therefore, the engineered probiotic has the potential to protect organ damage from alcohol consumption. Furthermore, this engineered probiotic may have beneficial effects on alcohol-related diseases such as alcoholic fatty liver disease. ..."

Cheers to no hangovers! This new probiotic could reduce alcohol's negative effects

Oral Probiotic Expressing Human Ethanol Dehydrogenase Attenuates Damage Caused by Acute Alcohol Consumption in Mice (open access)

FIG 1 Preparation and characterization of oral recombinant probiotics for treatment of alcoholics.