Scientists at the University of Texas have made the worm Caenorhabditis elegans immune to the effects of alcohol, opening up a promising field of research to treat drinking addiction.
As they have published in the Journal of Neuroscience , experts observed that alcohol activates the potassium channel called BK in the brain , causing neurons to slow down or even stop working.
Later it was relatively easy to develop specimens with a genetic mutation that made it possible to close the passage to alcohol through this biochemical pathway , also present in humans. Indeed, the mutant worms did not get drunk, that is, they moved normally.
As completely disabling the BK channel would have negative consequences for health , now the goal would be to design drugs that only nullify the part that makes it insensitive to alcohol.
