Enzyme treatment for alcohol poisoning(?)

[American]

Prompted by another thread-


Why is there no good treatment for alcohol poisoning? They give vitamin B and pump your stomach. Why not inject the enzyme that converts alcohol? ("something-dehydrogenase"? don't make me look it up...)

 

[jj]

That enzyme is only one of the steps in a long process that burns alcohol, eventually, if I recall correctly, sliding it into the normal metabolic cycle, with some remainder that has to be dealt with via auxilary enzymes that are also usually in limited supply and only in the liver.

If you're really serious, I have a decent biochem text on this, somewhere. It's unpacked now, at least.

The other problem, of course, is that the enzyme needs to be in specific places INSIDE the cells, and I don't know that there is any uptake mechanism for it.

 

[Dancing David]

The short answer: the enzyme works in the liver, they use the charcoal to draw out what they can when they do the lavage, but short of blood transfusion, the enzyme isn't going to do a lot by itself.

I suppose dialysis might work, better than the ice cube suppository!