A new vaccine is beginning clinical trials which may help smokers kick their nicotine habit for good.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently gave Nabi BioPharmaceuticals a $10 million grant to advance NicVAX, the vaccine designed to help people quit smoking, to clinical trials. If the trials are successful, the vaccine will move on to seek FDA approval.
news.bbc.co.uk
In a statement reported by CNN, the vaccine is ”given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.”
NicVAX works by causing the body’s immune system to create antibodies that in turn attach to nicotine particles and keep the nicotine from entering the brain due to the fact that the new particles are too large to cross the blood brain barrier.
If the nicotine can’t reach the brain, it can’t trigger a release of dopamine which is what gives the smoker the high that keeps them coming back for more cigarettes.
“Nicotine addiction causes nearly a half-million deaths annually in the United States alone. Finding effective treatments that can help people stay off cigarettes has been a real challenge,” National Institute of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said, according to CNN. “This Phase III trial of a nicotine vaccine offers tremendous hope towards solving this immense public health problem.”
According to the American Cancer Society, stated that 70 percent of the 44 million American smokers have a desire to quit and of those, 40 percent do actually quit each year. But only a mere 4-7 percent successfully gives up the habit permanently.
the-scientist.com
“We hope the Phase III trials will get stronger results so that a large percentage of our population can benefit from it,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The nicotine vaccine could be the most successful stop smoking therapy on the market due to the fact that it can help smokers to permanently quit. Relapse rates for smokers that try to quit can be as high as 90% during the first year with current anti smoking therapies.
Our Take
We all know the dangers of smoking and as stated most who do smoke want to quit. This NicVAX nicotine vaccine could be a huge breakthrough and drastically increase the general health of the nation. It could cause a snowball effect which would reduce the cancer rates and extend life spans and reduce health costs. Hopefully the trials will be successful and it quickly gets FDA approval.
Highlights
- Vaccine is being tried on a large group in clinical trials to determine effectiveness
- It helps the body to create antibodies that keep the brain from absorbing nicotine
- Most Americans that smoke want to quit but have been unsuccessful
Source: CollegeNews
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Related News
Nicotine vaccine tests launched
banderasnews.com
Clinical Trials of the World's First Anti Smoking Vaccine have been Launched
Sixty volunteers will take part in the tests being carried out in Belgium.
If successful, the vaccine, known as TA-NIC, will help smokers to quit by stopping nicotine from reaching the brain, thereby preventing addiction.
A nicotine vaccine would effectively become one of the most important medicines in the response to cancer, lung and heart disease
Clive Bates
At this early stage the tests are simply concerned with establishing what level of dose can be safely tolerated.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are more than a billion smokers worldwide.
It is estimated that about four million die each year because of cancer, heart disease and other smoking related illnesses. Over the last few years, nicotine chewing gum and patches have become popular as a way of helping people to quit.
However, the new anti-nicotine vaccine works in a completely different way.
Nicotine passes easily into the brain from the blood; and it is then that smokers become addicted to cigarettes.
Immune system
collegenews.com
The vaccine is designed to stimulate the body's immune system to produce antibodies which bind to the nicotine molecules.
This makes them too big to get into the brain and so the smoker's addiction subsides.
If the trial succeeds, Xenova, the UK company developing the vaccine, hopes to have it on the market within five years.
David Oxlade, Xenova's Chief Executive, said: "Most people who want to stop smoking find it very hard to do so, even though they may be aware of the risks involved.
"Although at an early stage of development, if TA-NIC can be of assistance it could have an important contribution to make in reducing the burdens that smoking imposes."
Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "A nicotine vaccine would be a profound development, which would effectively become one of the most important medicines in the response to cancer, lung and heart disease.
"About a third of smokers, or 4m people, try to quit each year, but the vast majority relapse within days or weeks and start to smoke again.
"If a vaccine helped reduce the relapse rate, then it could change everything.
"If smokers could quit when they wanted to - and most do want to - then the tobacco companies would be dead in the water."
However, Mr Bates warned that the research was at an early stage.
"The trial is about the safety not the effectiveness of the treatment, and sometimes hype can conceal just how far there is to go.
"No-one should hold back from trying to quit now in the hope there will be a magic potion in a few years."
Xenova is one of several companies researching vaccines against other addictive drugs, including cocaine. (Heather Linich)
Source: BBC News
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