The enzyme that metabolizes alcohol also fights the flu, but it is the prerogative of sober people – time.news

2024-01-11 10:12:05

by Cesare Peccarisi

This is why traditional alcoholic remedies against colds could work: the ALD H1B1 enzyme is activated by alcohol intake and serves to unleash the immune system against viruses. present especially in those who don’t drink

Don’t you appreciate wine that much and have you never had a hangover even on New Year’s Eve? All the better not only for your liver, but also for your immune system: according to a study just published in Science Signaling by Chinese-American researchers directed by Nina Sun, the enzyme called ALD is found in the mitochondria of those with sober habits H1B1, one of the dehydrogenases involved in the metabolism of alcohol which is the heritage especially of those who do not appreciate grape nectar and will never become alcoholics.

Enzyme that activates defenses

Mitochondria are the batteries of our cells which, as in modern electric cars, provide the energy necessary for cellular functioning and also act as a control unit through enzymes and protein matrices useful for carrying out the most varied tasks depending on the position they are in. the cell has in the body, so that as regards the enzymatic and protein structure, gastric cells for example have different mitochondria from brain or liver cells, etc.
What researchers from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing and the University of California at Los Angeles have now discovered is that ALD H1B1, in addition to metabolizing alcohol like the other dehydrogenases of its enzymatic family, also activates the body’s defenses. innate immunity by hindering viruses such as influenza A, zika or dengue. This is true not only for humans: by experimentally depriving some mice of this enzyme, researchers saw how they easily fell ill with more serious forms of flu.
For a couple of years it has been observed that the enzyme connected to the MAV, acronym for mitochondrial antiviral-signaling protein, i.e. the system of mitochondrial proteins for recognizing viral RNA which, once activated, produce a cascade of cytokines and interferons that counteract the viral attack.

Alcohol could activate this enzyme

The ALD H1B1, however, is an inductive enzyme, that is, it is activated when it needs to work, therefore, just as it can be stimulated by the contact of the cell with the invading virus, so it can also be stimulated by the intake of alcohol, the metabolisation of which however remains another of its main tasks.
the use of mulled wine against colds is known and even before that of conditum paradoxum, the cinnamon wine that was used for the same purpose in Ancient Rome. Could these folk remedies be able to activate this mitochondrial enzyme, unleashing a cascade of interferons against invading viruses? If so, perhaps our grandparents were right when they said that everything would go away if we went to bed well covered after a nice glass of hot wine. We need to see if this remedy also works with those who usually drink too much alcohol who, according to what has been discovered, have little ALD H1B1 and therefore this alcoholic trick would not work with them.

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January 11, 2024 (changed January 11, 2024 | 07:45)

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