FGF21: The "savior" of a drinking party, unlocking new possibilities for hangovers

FGF21: The "savior" of a drinking party, unlocking new possibilities for hangovers

In a lively drinking party, as the wine gets stronger and stronger, the drunkenness may follow, and you may stagger, feel dizzy, or even do something that you will regret afterwards. Being drunk not only affects your personal image, but also may damage your health. Severe alcohol poisoning may even endanger your life. Therefore, finding an effective way to sober up has always been the direction of scientists' efforts. Recently, a hormone called FGF21 has become the focus of the scientific community, and it is expected to become a "savior" of drinking parties.

The full name of FGF21 is fibroblast growth factor 21, which belongs to the fibroblast growth factor family. This family is not simple. They are a group of signaling proteins with conserved core domains, which play an important role in embryonic development, tissue regeneration, and maintaining metabolic homeostasis. As a member of this family, FGF21 has a unique function. The liver secretes this natural hormone when it encounters metabolic disorders such as hunger, protein deficiency, and ethanol intake.

Previously, scientists have discovered many magical aspects of FGF21. It can improve insulin sensitivity and help the body use glucose more effectively, thereby inducing weight loss. Moreover, increasing the concentration of FGF21 can prevent thymus aging and prevent immune failure caused by aging. It is simply a "treasure hormone" that can prolong life and lose weight.

And this new study makes FGF21 shine. The researchers found that FGF21 has an amazing performance in sobering up. In the experiment, they gavaged ethanol to wild-type mice and mice with FGF21 expression deficiency. The results showed that FGF21 can stimulate drunk mice to wake up faster without changing the rate of ethanol decomposition. Mice lacking FGF21 took significantly longer to restore balance and turn over reflex after exposure to ethanol than mice in the same litter. In contrast, mice injected with FGF21 had a much shorter time to recover from loss of consciousness and loss of muscle coordination caused by drunkenness.

In order to figure out how FGF21 "wakes up" drunk mice, the research team explored further. They injected mice with a variety of different sedatives intraperitoneally and found that FGF21 did not neutralize these sedatives, which shows that FGF21 specifically detoxifies ethanol, rather than acting by relieving calmness. Specifically, FGF21 directly acts on the receptor KLB expressed by noradrenergic neurons, activates neuronal activity, induces rapid recovery of the righting reflex in mice, and does not affect the rate of ethanol metabolism in the body.

The results of this study show that when drinking, the liver can not only break down ethanol through metabolic enzymes, but also secrete FGF21, a hormone that can act on the brain to relieve alcohol poisoning. Treatment with FGF21 can accelerate the recovery of balance and righting reflex in drunk mice, and it is expected to become a potential drug target for the treatment of acute alcohol poisoning.

Of course, this study still needs further research and verification to determine its effectiveness and safety in humans, as well as its effects in other symptoms of alcohol poisoning. But it is foreseeable that if FGF21 can really be applied to humans, future drinking parties may be very different. Maybe after three rounds of drinking, you can get an injection of FGF21 and continue drinking freely, enjoying the joy of drinking without worrying about the troubles caused by drunkenness. FGF21 is opening a new door for us to sober up.