This Cocaine-Munching Enzyme Could Save Lives

Meet cocaine esterase, the little enzyme with enormous potential.

Inhabiting the soil near the coca plant is a bacterial enzyme with exciting possibilities for the world of rehabilitative medicine. Cocaine esterase, as the enzyme is called, helps neutralize the effects of cocaine in the bloodstream by breaking the drug into tiny little bits; scientists think it could be used one day to help addicts get clean, or to stop an overdose in progress.

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