A pesky bug could be hiding the secret to treating alcohol disorder – and they might be lurking in your home right now.
Fruit flies are notoriously annoying and appear quite useless, especially given their 50-day life cycle.
Though these little bugs could hold the secret to curing a series of diseases, including alcohol disorder.
According to Worldwide Cancer Research, they share up to 75% of disease-related genes with humans and so are regularly used as a model to screen potential drugs and treatments.
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And it’s been found that male fruit flies become more attractive to their female counterparts when drinking alcohol, reports Need To Know.
While hitting the booze, though, scientists found something quite remarkable.
The fruit flies were assessed across a series of experiments while under the influence of certain medications, including naltrexone, acamprosate and topiramate.
Their motor skills, alcohol consumption and alcohol-associated memory were tested.
In humans, it’s been shown that these forms of medication reduce alcohol consumption.
For the flies, naltrexone and acamprosate, both FDA-approved for treating alcohol disorder, had the same effect.
Topiramate, however, didn’t affect them at all, and there were no signs of withdrawal symptoms.
Other drugs, such as dibenzazepine and compound E, reduced preference for alcohol; similar to what it does in humans.
The study, and its findings, suggest that using fruit flies to test the efficacy of these medications is “ideal” and could pave the way to identify more pharmacological treatments in the future.
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