Doctors Test Anti-Smoking Vaccine Jul 27, 12:25

[IGBT]

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That pleasurable buzz has seduced Mario Musachia into burning through nearly half a million cigarettes in half a century.

Now the Madison man is among 300 people around the country who are testing an experimental vaccine that makes the immune system attack nicotine in much the same way it would fight a life-threatening germ.

The treatment keeps nicotine from reaching the brain, making smoking less pleasurable and theoretically, easier to give up. The small amount that still manages to get in helps to ease withdrawal, the main reason most quitters relapse.

If it works - and this has not yet been proved - the vaccine could become part of a new generation of smoking cessation treatments. They attack dependency in the brain instead of just replacing the nicotine from cigarettes in a less harmful way, like the gum, lozenges, patches and nasal sprays sold today.

One such drug, Pfizer Inc. (PFE)'s Chantix, is due on the market any day now. Another, Sanofi-Aventis SA' (SNY)s Acomplia, recently won approval in Europe as a weight-loss drug. If U.S. regulators follow suit, some doctors say they also will use it to help smokers quit, especially those concerned about gaining weight.

 

[Lonyo]

Could that not just make them smoke more, so they get the same amount of nicotine?

 

[Tiamat]

If people smoke for the buzz, the vaccine will probably not be as effective in getting users to quit as it would inhibit the buzz.

Although, there are some "vaccines" that may cause the person to gradually feel ill after smoking the cigarette while blocking the nicotine. This might coerce the person to stop smoking if they learn to associate that action with an "ill - feeling" rather than the "buzz"

There are actually several interesting smoking-cures on the horizon that I read about in my Drug Delivery course.

 

[MoPHo]

if nicotine is already in the brain, does that mean it will attack it?

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: MoPHo
if nicotine is already in the brain, does that mean it will attack it?

yes. In fact, on average, it takes 7 seconds for nicotine to penetrate the Blood-Brain barrier upon inhalation. The vaccine is supposed to cause the nicotine molecules to get metabolised in some way before it crosses the BB barrier.