Happyhour Gene Could Curb Alcohol Abuse

Posted on May 24, 2009 in Health & Medicine, Recent Studies

Do you have the happyhour gene? No, it doesn’t help you keep up with the after-work cocktail crew; the newly identified “happyhour” gene makes fruit flies more sensitive to alcohol. Scientists could develop drugs to mimic the gene to create a new treatment for alcohol abuse, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

A research team led by molecular biologist Ulrike Heberlein found that fruit flies experience the effects of alcohol in a similar manner to humans. “They go through a phase of hyperactivity and they gradually become uncoordinated; they stop moving and fall over; and eventually they are unable to right themselves,” Heberlein said.

The team discovered two strains of flies that carry mutations in a gene that were dubbed happyhour for their ability to keep partying and not pass out. The gene diminishes a cellular network involved in cell division called the epidermal growth factor (EGF) pathway. When researchers switched happyhour back on in brain cells of mutant flies, they experienced the effects of alcohol more easily.

Scientists speculate that a medication that blocks the EGF pathway and increases the sensitivity to alcohol might have protective benefits for people prone to alcohol abuse. Those who are particularly sensitive to alcohol tend to drink less, on average.