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Human Trials Of Anti-Smoking Vaccine Begin

Posted by timothy on from the pleasure-reduction dept.

Makarand writes "A Nicotine vaccine that may help smokers to quit has made it to human trials. The vaccine is administered as a series of eight shots -- patients receive two shots per visit during four different visits. The vaccine works by stimulating the human immune system to produce antibodies that bind with the nicotine molecules to form a larger complex molecule which cannot pass through the blood/brain barrier to get into the brain. As a result smokers will not feel the 'high' from the cigarettes they light up and lose interest in smoking. Preliminary studies have shown that this vaccine is safe in humans." (Each link goes to a slightly different version of the same wire story.)

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. There's more than one type of addiction by Dr+Tall · · Score: 5, Informative

    Maybe this could be used to treat physical addiction, but I don't see how it would help psychological addiction. You can become clinically addicted to something without your body being dependent on the substance; you just feel an uncontrolable urge to smoke, not for the high feeling, but just because you always smoke on the way to work, always smoke at parties, etc.

  2. How long before... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...your kids will have to be vaccinated against drugs before entering public schools.

  3. how I stopped by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A friend of mine was smoking American Spirit's. They advertise themselves as having no added chemicals and just being "pure" tobacco. It's well known that brands like Camel and Marlboro put added chemicals in their smokes, for whatever reason. Apparently a good amount of the addiction in these brands comes from some of the added chemicals, not just the nicotine.

    Anyway, my friend said that as soon as she switched to American Spirit, she just didn't feel the need to smoke as much and the though of it kind of disgusted her. So I switched too.

    After about a month, the very thought of smoking just disgusted me to the point where I stopped doing it. I started smoking their strongest ones, of which I could only finish about half a cigarette, then went to the medium, then their ultra-lights.

    It's ironic using cigarettes to quit smoking, but it worked for me. The only side-effects I've had is that I feel much better. The smell of smoke in bars even disgusts me now.