Vicious Cycle Revealed: How Alcohol Helps Gut Bacteria Attack Your Liver (sciencealert.com)
(Saturday September 06, 2025 @05:26PM (EditorDavid)
from the double-shot dept.)
- Reference: 0179040984
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/09/06/0228240/vicious-cycle-revealed-how-alcohol-helps-gut-bacteria-attack-your-liver
- Source link: https://www.sciencealert.com/vicious-cycle-revealed-how-alcohol-helps-gut-bacteria-attack-your-liver
[1] ScienceAlert reports :
> It's no secret that excessive alcohol consumption damages the liver, but a new study reveals a previously unknown vicious cycle that makes that damage worse. Chronic alcohol use makes it easier for bacteria to leak out of the gut and migrate to the liver, causing further harm.
>
> The new study, led by scientists at the University of California San Diego, examined human liver biopsies as well as mouse models of alcohol-associated liver disease. [2]The team found that chronic alcohol use impaired the production of a cellular signaling protein called mAChR4 in the small intestine. Lower levels of this protein were found to interfere with the formation of what are called goblet cell-associated antigen passages (GAPs). These specialized structures play a key role in teaching the immune system to respond to microbes, particularly those that escape the gut into other parts of the body, where they don't belong...
>
> The researchers found that if they restored the function of mAChR4, GAPs would form again, which in turn repaired the immune system's response to wayward gut bacteria, reducing liver damage. This could be done either by using drugs to directly activate mAChR4 or by targeting related pathways that end up having the same effect...
>
> The research was published [3]in the journal Nature .
[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/vicious-cycle-revealed-how-alcohol-helps-gut-bacteria-attack-your-liver
[2] https://today.ucsd.edu/story/alcohol-opens-the-floodgates-for-bad-bacteria
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09395-z
> It's no secret that excessive alcohol consumption damages the liver, but a new study reveals a previously unknown vicious cycle that makes that damage worse. Chronic alcohol use makes it easier for bacteria to leak out of the gut and migrate to the liver, causing further harm.
>
> The new study, led by scientists at the University of California San Diego, examined human liver biopsies as well as mouse models of alcohol-associated liver disease. [2]The team found that chronic alcohol use impaired the production of a cellular signaling protein called mAChR4 in the small intestine. Lower levels of this protein were found to interfere with the formation of what are called goblet cell-associated antigen passages (GAPs). These specialized structures play a key role in teaching the immune system to respond to microbes, particularly those that escape the gut into other parts of the body, where they don't belong...
>
> The researchers found that if they restored the function of mAChR4, GAPs would form again, which in turn repaired the immune system's response to wayward gut bacteria, reducing liver damage. This could be done either by using drugs to directly activate mAChR4 or by targeting related pathways that end up having the same effect...
>
> The research was published [3]in the journal Nature .
[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/vicious-cycle-revealed-how-alcohol-helps-gut-bacteria-attack-your-liver
[2] https://today.ucsd.edu/story/alcohol-opens-the-floodgates-for-bad-bacteria
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09395-z
Re: (Score:2)
Then don't drink it. More for me.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, then he missed a great opportunity.
Re: (Score:2)
Truth. Thousands of people drink themselves to death every year. Number of cannabis deaths is still zero.
Re: (Score:3)
Not true. Cannabis can cause lung-cancer when smoked and long-term higher use can cause depression with suicide as end-result. The risks are massively lower though and Cannabis users rarely harm others, unlike many people when under the influence of alcohol.
And in other news, if consumed responsibly, neither Cannabis nor Alcohol is a problem.
Re:Fuck Alcohol. Use Cannibis. (Score:4, Interesting)
> And in other news, if consumed responsibly, neither Cannabis nor Alcohol is a problem.
Smoking weed is like smoking cigarettes in terms of second-hand smoke. There are some health effects from second smoke, but for some people like me, I get triggered on the smell. I hate the cigarette smell and I hate the weed smell even more. It may not harm me directly, but like BO from a person who never bathes, it harms me psychologically. I would bail out of events if I have to smell weed. I had a friend who pulled out of a house buying contract due to smelling weed from the neighbor. I would have done the same.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure. Same for me. But weed smoker do not smoke 20 joints per day. And generally, they are quite respectful in my experience. And that is certainly part of "doing it responsibly".
Not True At All (Score:3, Interesting)
> Truth. Thousands of people drink themselves to death every year. Number of cannabis deaths is still zero.
That's the exact opposite of truth. Cannabis use has been shown to lead to a [1]significant increase in mortality [jamanetwork.com]. The exact mechanisms of how it kills you are still being researched, unlike for alcohol where there has been research on its affects for decades. But the evidence so far is that does kill you - whether it is more or less dangerous than alcohol remains to be seen but will not be evident from the absolute numbers of deaths because there are far many more drinkers than there are cannabis users.
[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2829914?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=020625&mc_cid=3f78e8cb6c
Re: (Score:3)
Long term depression. I've known a few people who had basically given up on taking care of themselves. And then died of some supposedly unrelated malady. I assure you that cannabis appeared nowhere on their death certificate.
Re: Not True At All (Score:2)
I read a good chunk of the jama report. They clearly state the report only applies to people with cannabis use disorder (CUD). There is no definition of what that is. That is a bit of a problem.
So now that we have established some baiting and switching going on, this does not apply to the general population.
I don't doubt many of the anecdotal findings, they certainly ring true to what I've seen. Hormonal teenage and college aged men are notorious idiots. Over self medication as an act of bravado or to impr
Re: (Score:3)
> Truth. Thousands of people drink themselves to death every year.
But how many people use alcohol responsibly? I'm not even talking about drinking - there's endless culinary uses for alcohol. Tabasco sauce owes its unique flavor to being aged in [1]re-used bourbon barrels [tabasco.com]. Wine can be used to make all sorts of tasty sauces. Bourbon seafood marinades are to die for. And beer can be made into a quick and simple frying batter that makes for some damn good homemade onion rings.
Marijuana, on the other hand, smells like skunk ass (and I'd imagine it probably doesn't taste muc
[1] https://www.tabasco.com/blog/about-our-barrels/
Re: (Score:3)
> Marijuana, on the other hand, smells like skunk ass
It's interesting how nature builds warnings into animals and plants that are to be avoided. Bad tastes, weird colors, strange odors. And yet there are still some people who don't get the message.
It's almost like a pre-Darwin Darwin award.
Re: Fuck Alcohol. Use Cannibis. (Score:2)
Ummm... no. Canada calling...
Obviously you're not wrong about skunky smells sometimes with some strains before combustion and sometimes in the second hand smoke ... BUT ... with irony, when inhaled the flavor varies from earthy and grassy to dozens of fruit flavors like strawberries, grapes, bananas, cherries. I've never tasted skunk.
Crossbreeding has enhanced the flavor and is practiced extensively creating an reinforcing the flavors and potency. The newest strains have up to 40%.. just under, 39% was the
Re:Fuck Alcohol. Use Cannibis. (Score:4, Informative)
Organized religion is always about power and control and oppression. Hence what do you expect? It starts with a made-up and unverifiable fairy-tale, then they add dramatic punishments to the mix and fantastic rewards, which never manifest in a verifiable manner either. And then, if they can, they get a lot of violent useful idiots to beat everybody that points out the flaws in their hallucination into submission. Why would anybody sane believe anything coming from these people?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
> Alcohol is the only drug God warned us about yet it is the only legal one according to 'Christians'. Stupid 2 faced lying mother fuckers.
Good to know God approves of my coke habit.
Re: Fuck Alcohol. Use Cannibis. (Score:2)
Yet Jesus allegedly turned water into wine