Vaccine Blocks Cocaine High in Mice: Approach Could Also Stop Addiction to Other Drugs, Including He

[TZ]

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2011) — Researchers have produced a lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice by giving them a safe vaccine that combines bits of the common cold virus with a particle that mimics cocaine.


In their study, published Jan. 4 in the online edition of Molecular Therapy and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the researchers say this novel strategy might be the first to offer cocaine addicts a fairly simple way to break and reverse their habit, and it might also be useful in treating other addictions, such as to nicotine, heroin and other opiates.

"Our very dramatic data shows that we can protect mice against the effects of cocaine, and we think this approach could be very promising in fighting addiction in humans," says the study's lead investigator, Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chairman and professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110104134034.htm
Interesting concept. I would have never thought of using ones own immune system to break an addiction. Boy wouldn't this be great if it could be used to quit smoking? A simple shot instead of some of the long difficult processes people use now?

[nebenaube]

1. Instant auto-immune disease... no thank you! n/t

[Name removed]

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[Enthusiast]

5. You might be right but

why call names?

[Name removed]

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[HereSince1628]

2. Seems to be directed at binding to cocaine not nerves

so I don't understand how this would stop the symptoms associated with addication and withdrawl.

Maybe I missed something.

[TZ]

4. The person could no longer get high from the drug.

If you can't get high, than taking the drug is pointless, who is going to do that?. Will it stop withdrawal symptoms? Maybe not, but it would stop relapses for sure, since it would be like eating a spoon of sugar to fix a nicotine fix.

[HereSince1628]

7. I understand that. But its' the addictive symptoms

that make kicking cocaine hard. Getting this vaccine would insure a previously addicted host experiences all the problems of going "cold turkey."

[TZ]

9. No, its the way the drug makes the body feel that makes it difficult to quit

The physical symptoms are part of it and unavoidable, but its the feelings while high that cause people to relapse. If they can't be high they will not continue to use.
The most effective anti-nicotine treatments make people dislike the taste of cigarettes.
Better analogy: How many people do you know that have sex if they can't achieve orgasm?

[HereSince1628]

10. The most common cocaine withdrawal symptoms are:

irritability, restlessness and difficulty relaxing, chronic fatigue, apathy (slowness and disinterest in normal activities), increased appetite and strange cravings, unusual and repetitive dreams.

I can't really say if kicking cocaine is only as difficult as kicking cigarettes. And even if I could I wouldn't know what that meant. My history is free of cocaine and tobacco and free pf people who used them and went through breaking those addictions. So I'll bow to superior experience.

[xchrom]

8. interesting. -- be nice for smoking. nt

[Fumesucker]

11. Funny how everyone misses the single most commonly ingested addictive recreational drug..

Alcohol.. used by roughly seventy five percent of the adults in America.

Nicotine is around twenty percent I think and I'd be surprised if cocaine was over ten percent and it's more likely considerably lower than that.