Nicotine Vaccine
A vaccine that could help people stop smoking is showing promise in early clinical trials, researchers announced this week at a national meeting of addiction specialists.
The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system to generate antibodies that would latch on to nicotine in a smoker's body and prevent it from ever entering the brain.
The vaccine maker, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, reported that among those who responded best to NicVAX in earlier testing, 16 percent were able to stop smoking and not start again, compared with 6 percent in the placebo group.
These are considered statistically significant results and superior or comparable to the testing results of Zyban and Chantix, prescription medications already approved to help smokers over the age of 18 quit, Nabi officials told the National Institute on Drug Abuse conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When a smoker inhales cigarette smoke, nicotine is absorbed through the lung tissue, into the blood stream and carried through the body. Because nicotine is a small molecule, it easily crosses the blood-brain barrier into the brain. The nicotine then binds to receptors in the brain, which release dopamine, a stimulant that gives the smoker a pleasurable sensation, known as a "smoker's high."
This process occurs very rapidly in the body -- less than one minute after tobacco smoke is inhaled -- so the nicotine fix is quick. That's what causes the addiction.
The NicVAX vaccine creates antibodies that bind to nicotine in the bloodstream, blocking it from crossing into the brain, through the blood-brain barrier. That's because these nicotine-specific antibodies are molecules that are too big to cross into the brain.
So the bound nicotine is trapped in the blood and can't reach the receptors that trigger the release of dopamine, which is what causes the pleasure response. It's believed that the addiction of the smoker to nicotine will gradually diminish because as the antibodies created by NicVAX continue to bind to the nicotine, the amount of nicotine reaching the brain will gradually decrease. –CNN Health
A vaccine that could help people stop smoking is showing promise in early clinical trials, researchers announced this week at a national meeting of addiction specialists.
The vaccine is designed to stimulate the immune system to generate antibodies that would latch on to nicotine in a smoker's body and prevent it from ever entering the brain.
The vaccine maker, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, reported that among those who responded best to NicVAX in earlier testing, 16 percent were able to stop smoking and not start again, compared with 6 percent in the placebo group.
These are considered statistically significant results and superior or comparable to the testing results of Zyban and Chantix, prescription medications already approved to help smokers over the age of 18 quit, Nabi officials told the National Institute on Drug Abuse conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When a smoker inhales cigarette smoke, nicotine is absorbed through the lung tissue, into the blood stream and carried through the body. Because nicotine is a small molecule, it easily crosses the blood-brain barrier into the brain. The nicotine then binds to receptors in the brain, which release dopamine, a stimulant that gives the smoker a pleasurable sensation, known as a "smoker's high."
This process occurs very rapidly in the body -- less than one minute after tobacco smoke is inhaled -- so the nicotine fix is quick. That's what causes the addiction.
The NicVAX vaccine creates antibodies that bind to nicotine in the bloodstream, blocking it from crossing into the brain, through the blood-brain barrier. That's because these nicotine-specific antibodies are molecules that are too big to cross into the brain.
So the bound nicotine is trapped in the blood and can't reach the receptors that trigger the release of dopamine, which is what causes the pleasure response. It's believed that the addiction of the smoker to nicotine will gradually diminish because as the antibodies created by NicVAX continue to bind to the nicotine, the amount of nicotine reaching the brain will gradually decrease. –CNN Health
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