Vaccine Will Give You Hangover After Just One Sip

New alcoholism drug undergoes preclinical trial
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2013 4:05 PM CST
Vaccine Will Give You Hangover After Just One Sip
The hangover begins, after just one sip.   (Shutterstock)

Imagine having a vicious hangover after just one sip of booze. Alcoholics around the world will face that very nightmare scenario if an experimental vaccine reaches the marketplace, the Daily Mail reports. Scientists at the University of Chile have designed a drug they say will give anyone who consumes alcohol an accelerated heartbeat, intense nausea, and general sickness. The vaccine works by telling the liver not to express genes that metabolize alcohol—but a scientist involved in the study warns it's no cure-all.

"People who end up alcoholic have a social problem, a personality problem because they’re shy, whatever, and then they are depressed, so it’s not so simple," he tells the Santiago Times. But solving the chemical aspect of alcoholism "could help quite a bit." The vaccine is scheduled to undergo a preclinical trial on mice next month before being tested on people in November. It resembles an old drug called Disulfiram, which was so awful that people simply stopped taking it. But the new vaccine would last for 6 solid months upon injection. (More vaccine stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X