Everything for People Concerned About Smoking & Nonsmokers' Rights
FIRST on the Internet for Smoking News and Documents
Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization
Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
 
 
 Home  Search  About ASH  Why Join  Comment  Email page

New Nicotine Vaccine for Smokers in Testing Phase [08/05-3]

Excerpts from: Boca Raton company develops nicotine vaccine to help smokers

Sun-Sentinel.com [08/03/03]

Researchers are testing a Florida-developed vaccine in smokers that they hope will blunt the pleasurable effect of nicotine in the brains.

So far the vaccine, called NicVax, has been tested extensively only in rats. In those tests, the vaccine stopped most, but not all, of the nicotine from reaching their brains, the researchers said

NicVax, developed by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals in Boca Raton, tricks the body into developing antibodies that attack a foreign invader -- in this case, nicotine.

In theory, the antibodies will begin to treat nicotine as an enemy invader and absorb the addictive chemical. According to researchers, both the vaccine and the antibodies are too large to get into the brain. Instead, researchers say, they break down in the bloodstream.

Studies of rats injected with nicotine and the vaccine found that only one-third of the nicotine reached the brain. The rats also were less active and had lower blood pressure -- signs that the nicotine was having less effect.

Nasi said a small human study of nonsmokers given a single injection showed the vaccine was safe and had no side effects.

If the vaccine works, Hatsukami said it might be most useful to former smokers trying to avoid a relapse weeks or months after quitting. Researchers say that only a fourth of the smokers who quit continue to abstain for at least a year.

The researchers also caution that the vaccine is not expected to eliminate the feelings of withdrawal and craving. And they're concerned that the vaccine might cause relapsed smokers to light up more frequently to compensate for the nicotine deprivation.

But Hatsukami expects that if the vaccine works the same as it did in rats, it will block so much nicotine that smoking more won't make a difference.




footer
 Home Web Page  Search This Site  Learn About ASH  Why Join ASH  Comment on This  Email This Page

Raising Smoking in a Custody Dispute
Smoking in Condos and
Apartments 
File Complaints Against Smoking
Toxins in Tobacco Smoke
Dangers of Secondhand Smoke
Govt. Rpt. on Secondhand Smoke
Tobacco Class-Action Law Suits 
Sue-Big-Tobacco List of Lawyers
Tobacco Settlement, Multistate
ASH's New  International Site
Smoking Facts & Statistics
Children and Smoking


Presented as a public service by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
2013 H Street, N.W., Wash., DC 20006, USA, (202) 659-4310.
ASH is a 36-year-old national legal-action antismoking and nonsmokers' rights organization which is entirely supported by tax-deductible contributions.
  Please credit ASH, and include ASH's web address: http://ash.org