Scientists have developed a treatment that reduced boozing by 50% in alcoholic vervet monkeys, potentially offering a solution for humans with drinking problems.

Vervet monkeys are a key species for researchers due to several similar characteristics, including at times a preference for alcohol – having even been known to steal drinks from customers in bars.

New research has uncovered that an analogue to a hormone provided by the liver called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) successfully suppresses drinking in vervet monkeys and mice.

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“Mammals began consuming alcohol from fermented fruit long before humans developed methods to produce alcohol from distillation,” report the researchers in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“Given that excessive alcohol consumption negatively impacts health and survival, it is not surprising that numerous physiological systems have evolved to sense and regulate alcohol consumption in mammals.”

The scientists from the University of Iowa and the University of Copenhagen have developed a new way to therapeutically target the neural pathways that contribute to how mammals regulate their alcohol consumption.

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“The vervet money population is comprised of alcohol avoiders, moderate alcohol drinkers, and a group heavy drinkers.

“The heavy drinkers will consume alcohol to intoxication if possible, thereby offering a preclinical model of alcohol drinking that may more closely reflect aspects of harmful drinking in humans,” the researchers stated.

Twenty male vervet monkeys with this innate preference for alcohol were given access to booze for four hours a day for four days to establish their baseline drinking behaviour.

After this was established, they were split into two groups, one which received a placebo and another which received the new FGF21 analogue treatment.

The monkeys who received the therapeutic treatment drank 50% less than they did at their baseline, indicating it can “robustly suppress alcohol consumption”.

Dr Kyle Flippo, of the University of Iowa, said: “Our results provide a mechanism for a liver-to-brain endocrine feedback loop that presumably functions to protect the liver from damage.

“The central molecular and cellular effects of FGF21 represent an opportunity for future research, and the present data indicates that FGF21 analogues may provide a potential treatment option against alcohol-use disorder and related diagnosis,” Dr Flippo added.

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