Science & Technology

'Smoking vaccine' developed

By T.K. Randall
June 30, 2012 ·  22 comments

Image Credit: sxc.hu While the vaccine isn't ready for use in humans yet it has proved effective in mice with an 85% nicotine reduction. "As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pacman-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect," said Prof Ronald Crystal.

While similar techniques have been attempted before, none were able to produce a sufficient enough number of antibodies to stop the nicotine from entering the brain. In the new research, scientists have used a special virus that infects the liver and turns it in to a factory able to produce enough of the antibodies to do the job.

Source: BBC News | Comments (22)

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