What Can Drunken Worms,Mice and Flies Tell Us About Alcohol
WHAT CAN DRUNKEN WORMS, MICE AND FLIES TELL US ABOUT ALCOHOL
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Alcohol:
Around
the world, alcohol is used extensively, primarily in the form of ethyl alcohol.
The gastrointestinal tract quickly absorbs ethanol, a little water-soluble
molecule. Within 30 minutes of drinking alcohol when fasting, maximal blood
alcohol levels are attained. . Rapid distribution occurs, and tissue levels
roughly match the blood concentration. Approximately 0.5–0.7 L/kg, or the
volume of distribution for ethanol, corresponds to total body water.
In
low to moderate doses, alcohol reduces anxiety and promotes feelings of
wellbeing or even pleasure, similar to other sedative-hypnotic substances.. Alcohol soothes anxiety and promotes a sense of
well-being or even pleasure at low to moderate doses, similar to other
sedative-hypnotic drugs However Alcohol is the most widely abused drug in the
world, leading to significant medical and societal expenses .
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What Can Drunken Worms, Mice And
Flies Tell Us About Alcohol?
Since ethanol has a low
potency and specificity and changes complex behaviors, it is challenging to
pinpoint the precise functions of all of its numerous direct and indirect
targets.
There are practical
considerations when scientists are searching for a model animal.
They require species that
are compact, manageable, and quick to reproduce. It must be easy enough to
comprehend and use. You need a species that is diploid, meaning that the
offspring receives one set of chromosomes from each parent, like humans, in
order to be able to acquire lessons for health. And you would favour simple
organisms for ethical grounds.
Three
experimental animal systems for which pow-erful genetic techniques exist—mice,
flies, and worms.
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Why These Animals?
The fruit fly may be kept in small spaces in large
numbers and reproduces quickly with no particular maintenance.
Worms can be produced in great quantities and at a
low cost on bacteria-filled plates. Every day, they produce more than 1,000
eggs. They only have a two-week life cycle, which is advantageous for
researching their development. is a little organism that is easy to keep in a
lab.
Because it is a mammal like us, the mouse is
superior to the fly and the fish. In fact, humans and mice share 90% of the
same genes.
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Effect Of Alcohol On Animals:
1. MICE : Breeding and selection
operations have long discovered mouse strains with abnormal sensitivity to
ethanol. The relationship between brain neuropeptide Y (NPY) and ethanol
after tests revealed a connection. They discovered that mice without the NPY
gene eat more ethanol than normal mice and are less sensitive to the sleepy
effects of ethanol. A strain of mice that overexpresses NPY drinks less alcohol
than the controls even when their overall consumption of food and liquid is
normal, which is expected if higher quantities of NPY in the brain make mice
more sensitive to ethanol. The
mice’s reaction to alcohol was observed and like mice were bred with each
other, creating two sets of mice — highly sensitive and hardly sensitive at
all.
Mice of each type were used in the experiment which
begin to appear slightly drunk after taking alcohol shot one minute
later. They appear a little tipsy and are a little unsteady when they walk.
After the lab operator places the extremely sensitive mouse
on its back in a plastic tray at the 13-minute mark, the mouse is unable to
correct itself. The sluggish mouse makes vain attempts to flip around by
pumping one leg across its tummy. The mouse finally gives up and lies down.
The other mouse, however, can easily correct himself. He's a
little less anxious, but He's much more relaxed than he was before and he's
willing to get out and explore around. If the mouse weren't drunk, it would hide in
the back corner of the lab table behind the cage, uneasy in a strange
environment.
Mice readily recover from the effects of
alcohol with a little hangover because they can metabolize food, drink, and
alcohol faster than humans.
Studies have also
shown that, in contrast to mice with normal levels of dopamine D2 receptors,
persistent alcohol consumption causes considerable overall brain atrophy as
well as particular shrinking of the cerebral cortex and thalamus in mice
lacking these receptors.
These brain areas play a crucial role in processing speech,
sensory data, motor impulses, and the formation of long-term memories in
humans. This study therefore contributes to the understanding of why alcohol
harm can be so pervasive and harmful.
2. FLIES:
It seems that alcohol can make both flies and mammals
inebriated.
Fruit flies from the genus Drosophila melanogaster that have
been exposed to ethanol vapour initially move more freely, but as the
concentration increases, their coordination deteriorates, they grow drowsy, and
eventually they become immobile.
The flies should get hyperactive after exposure to
alcohol . Phospholipase D2,is an enzyme found on nerve cell
membranes (PLD2). The enzyme joins ethanol molecules to lipid (fat) molecules
in the nerve cell membrane. They discovered that the enzyme serves as a
catalyst for numerous downstream cell functions. It produces the metabolite
phosphatidyl ethanol, which is a fatty alcohol (PEtOH). More hyperactive flies
are produced as a result of that metabolite's buildup, which makes nerves fire
more quickly.
The flies did not become more active when the scientists
removed the gene for the enzyme that creates the PEtOH metabolite..
3. WORMS
When present in small amounts (1-2%),Ethyl
Alcohol increased the worm lifespan and slowed the rate
at which mobility decreased with age, However it also reduced
chemotaxis, fertility, its locomotor activity, the bending amplitude of the
body, and the frequency of egg-laying and development. While age-1 and sir-2.1
mutant worms did not exhibit the lifespan-extension effects of ethanol at the
low doses, normal worms exposed to it at the egg, young larva, and young adult
stages did.
its locomotor
activity, the bending amplitude of the body, and the frequency of egg-laying
and becomes immobile, a trait that is reversed when the worms recover from
intoxication.
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CONCLUSION:
Referring to the effects of alcohol, it can be seen that
alcohol causes euphoria and positive effects but in comparison, it is causing
lifelong harmful effects.
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References:
§ https://basicmedicalkey.com/the-alcohols/
§ https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press-room/2018/20181221-hansen.html
§ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3531558/
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