A Smoking Vaccine at last
By tony leather, 1st Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsHealth
It appears that the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction would be to have these sentry anti-bodies in the bloodstream, clearing the blood before nicotine can take effect.
A Smoking Vaccine at last
Scientists at the US Weill Cornell Medical College have developed a treatment that could one day see smokers being immunised against nicotine addiction, so that they gain no pleasure from inhaling tobacco smoke, having devised a vaccine that floods the body with an antibody to attack any nicotine that appears.
Lead researcher - Prof Ronald Crystal - is convinced there will be benefits, after a study in mice indicated that nicotine levels in the brain, after vaccination, were reduced by 85%, though years of research are still needed before it could be tested on people.
It appears that the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction would be to have these sentry anti-bodies in the bloodstream, clearing the blood before nicotine can take effect. Though various vaccines have been developed - all of which train immune systems to produce nicotine-binding antibodies - the real test has always been producing enough to stop the drug reaching the brain.
The Weill Cornell Medical researchers used a completely different approach, in that they developed a gene-therapy vaccine. They introduced genetically modified viruses - which held instructions for production of nicotine antibodies - to infect the liver effectively turning it into an antibody production plant.
They compared the nicotine levels in normal mice brains with those of immunised ones, the vaccinated mice having 85% lower nicotine levels, though it is as yet not known either if this could be repeated in human subjects nor if the 85% reduction would be enough to help people quit the habit.
Prof Crystal commented that the team are very hopeful that this work will lead to medicine finally being able to help millions of smokers who currently find their nicotine addiction too strong enough to overcome current approaches to giving up, plus there are also ethical issues concerning gene therapy safety. To be blunt, the best way to stop smoking is always going to be the simple fact of being strong-willed enough, though obviously every little helps.
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