Team: XHD-Wuhan-Pro-China

Sober Up

Jun 17th, 2021

来自武汉新航道的刘觐荣、林洋、王捷、谢永菲、高莉、许可、欧鸿政、杨龙华、李娟娟、王欢出席了第八届中国地区iGEMer交流会（2021年8月27至29日，中国上海）。

Team Leader

• 刘觐荣*

Contact

• 1746921258 AT qq.com

A High-School Project

Alcoholic drinks are one of the drinks with the longest drinking history in the human world. Originally, these drinks were used as recreational drugs. However, in modern China, alcoholic drinks are often used for working purposes. In social engagement events, young people new to the workplace are forced to drink to show their loyalty to their superiors. This so called “wine culture” has resulted in many cases of alcoholic poisoning. It is estimated that over 110,000 people in China die because of alcoholic poisoning each year. Making up 1.3% of China’s annual death rate.

When we consume alcohol, our body metabolize this chemical by 2 important enzymes: ADH and ALDH. These enzymes are functions in our liver, in which ADH converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, and ALDH converts acetaldehyde into a harmless chemical called acetic acid. However, these enzymes do not function properly in everyone’s bodies. Around 40% of East Asians carry a gene that results in less functions of ALDH. To make it even worse, about 80% of East Asians have mutated ADH, which converts alcohol to acetaldehyde more quickly, further preventing acetaldehyde from being metabolized. Moreover, these two important enzymes cannot be easily replenished. If we could find a way to produce these enzymes in the human body, the risk of alcohol poisoning would be significantly lower.

Existing antialcohol drugs works by diluting the concentration of alcohol or protecting the gastric mucosa, having limited effect on the metabolism of alcohol. Our project aims to solve the problem of alcohol poisoning from the root by constructing a probiotic that contains 4 important genes: adh for ADH, ald for ALDH, nadE for an enzyme that synthesize NAD, and nox for NADH oxidase. In comparison with previous products, our product deal with the issue from its base by enabling the probiotic to synthesize these important enzymes in the stomach and the intestines to reduce alcohol’s harm to the liver. In addition, the synthesis of dehydrogenase coenzyme NAD+ improves the imbalance of NAD+/NADH ratio caused by the metabolism of ethanol and acetaldehyde. It can accelerate the metabolism of ethanol and acetaldehyde and also supply the NAD+ required by the tricarboxylic acid cycle. We hope that this new product can prevent alcohol poisoning and reduce liver problems for the people around the globe.

We are the XHD Wuhan team. Fix toxics, For ebrieties; Through probiotics, In genetics.

我们的项目旨在通过构建拥有乙醇和乙醛脱氢酶基因的益生菌来促进乙醇和乙醛的降解。此外，我们还添加了nadE和nox基因以表达NAD合成酶和NADH氧化酶。这两种酶能够促进NAD+的产生并调节NAD+/NADH水平，防止其受到过高乙醇含量的干扰而导致代谢效率降低。

众所周知，酒精会给人体各器官带来巨大伤害。因此，解决酗酒引发的健康问题刻不容缓。

https://2021.igem.org/Team:XHD-Wuhan-Pro-China
https://igem.org/Team.cgi?id=3925
http://parts.igem.org/wiki/index.php?title=Part:BBa_K3925000
XHD-Wuhan-Pro-China Project Promotion video at igem.org

Team of XHD-Wuhan-Pro-China present between 2021/8/27 15:00-16:30 using VooV 404 469 7665^27#5.