Vaccine may prevent cigarette addiction

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May 17 2005

Clinical trials on a new vaccine against smoking has given hope to those trying to quit. The vaccine could also prevent cigarette addiction.

Results in the first large human trial have revealed that after being injected with the vaccine, some smokers were able to kick the habit immediately. Tests on more than 340 smokers showed 57 per cent of those injected with the highest dose of the vaccine quit.

Of smokers who received low-dose vaccine levels, 32 per cent were able to butt out, and of those injected with a placebo, 31 per cent stopped smoking.

By combining nicotine with antibodies in the bloodstream, the drug blocks nicotine from entering the brain and shuts down the body's addiction to tobacco.

Swiss company Cytos Biotechnology released the findings of the trial at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Florida. Cytos plans more human trials in the US and Europe.

Prof Jacques Cornuz says the results are exciting, and the data clearly suggests that antibodies against nicotine are effective in helping people quit smoking. He believes that the vaccine approach has the potential to dramatically alter the way smoking addiction is treated in the future.

Vaccine dosages and the number of injections could be increased to ensure nicotine does not enter the brain.

If the vaccine is approved by health authorities worldwide, it could be on the market by 2010.

But Quit Victoria's executive director Todd Harper is sceptical, and says there is not a miracle cure on the horizon, and even if this drug were to be successful, it will be many years down the track before it is available to the public.

Harper advises that people wanting to quit use will-power and utilise the Quit Line.

Two other companies -- the British-based Xenova and an American company called Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, are also working on a nicotine vaccine.

Posted in: Pharmaceutical News

Tags: Addiction, Antibodies, Antibody, Biotechnology, Brain, Cigarette, Electronic Cigarette, Nicotine, Oncology, Placebo, Smoking, Smoking Addiction, Tobacco, Vaccine

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Smoking is not a disease!

Michelle Andujar says:

October 9, 2009 at 6:00 AM

This is a whole new level of corruption on the part of the medical system. A vaccine against smoking!!!??? It's not bad enough to come out with a pill to quit smoking that causes people to commit suicide (I guess for this anti-smokers being DEAD is better then being a smoker!!!).

Now they have a "vaccine" to "CURE" smoking? The pharmaceutical industries can't stop making up fake diseases where there are none to make money selling their harmful vaccines. Shame on them.

May smokers prevail against these fascists!

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- Reponse to Smoking is not a disease
  
  Elizabeth Toscano says:
  
  December 11, 2009 at 11:57 AM
  
  Michelle, I feel sorry for you and the fact that you honestly believe that cigarette smoke (an addiction) is not a disease.
  Just like every other addiction (meth, heroine, cocaine, etc)- they cause changes in the brain and its chemistry.
  
  If you have taken any kind of physiological class- you would already know this.
  
  "All abused drugs increase dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens, including opiates, barbituarates, alcohol,thc,pcp, mdma, NICOTINE, and even caffeine. There is considerable evidence that this increase in dopamine level plays an important role in addiction."
  
  If there are changes in the brain's neurochemistry- there is bound to mental health problems associated with quitting.
  It also goes further than that because it is not just mentally. People get physically ill when they quit a drug- including smoking cigarettes. That would also show that there is some kind of change in the entire body.
  
  According to "Brain and Behavior- an Introduction to Physiology," Smoking and other drug use IS A BRAIN DISEASE.
  
  There are many studies that have proved that the changes in the brain are strong enough to be considered "abnormal" and therefore, a disease of the brain.
  
  You shouldn't judge or say anything unless you have the facts behind you.
  
  I am a smoker. My whole family smokes. I never knew not to smoke. (Which the book also says that smoking tendencies are inherited). I have tried to quit hundreds of times. I HATE HATE HATE smoking. Smoking disgusts me. But let me tell you, when I have tried to quit so many times, I almost feel like I am going crazy. The changes in my body, the withdrawals make me sick. I have to fight with "my mind" almost because every 2 seconds it feels as though I will DIE if I do not go smoke a cigarette. The last time I quit for a week. It was SO hard. But when I finally broke down and bought a pack of cigarettes, the first inhale of smoke completely relaxed my entire body and MIND. I was not sick anymore.
  
  If a drug can do that to a person- it is most definitely a disease. It definitely causes MAJOR problems in the body and mind.
  
  I cannot wait to try this vaccine. It is NOT a cure all. But it does help because if the nicotine cannot get into the brain- the changes in the brain will slowly revert back to normal. I think it is GREAT that they are coming out with this.
  
  IF it actually works, the country will save trillions of dollars on health care bills because of all the damage smoking does to people.
  
  PS. A prime example of how much of a disease smoking is... there are people that have holes in their throats because they got throat cancer from smoking. However, the drug addiction is SO strong, that they will smoke through that hole in their throat. They will tell you that they tried to quit and that they know that it is wrong and that they might die... but they feel they will die anyway without a cigarette. That is a very strong DISEASE of the mind.
  
  Are you one of those people that does not think Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder are diseases either?
  
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