-thought this was interesting as well...- it would be awesome if the vaccine for nicotine came about, likewise for drug addiction.

Vaccine for drug addiction could offer hope to users by Regan Doherty
Wed Jan 30, 4:14 AM ET

In a search for what could be the ultimate cure for drug addiction, scientists have developed a vaccine which prevents the body from getting high.

The hope is that it can stop people from falling back into a spiral of addiction if they have a relapse.

The most promising results so far have been with cocaine, but researchers hope it could also one day be used to cure addiction to methamphetamine, heroin and even cigarettes.

"The vaccine slowly decreases the amount of cocaine that reaches the brain," said Thomas Kosten, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who has been working on the vaccine since 1995.

"It's a slow process, and patients do not go through any significant withdrawal symptoms."

The vaccine works by getting the body's immune system to recognize the drug as foreign and attack it in the blood stream.

It does so by injecting an altered version of the drug into the body which has been attached to a protein that the body will recognize as a threat.

"The body then says, 'This is a foreign article. I should start making antibodies to it,'" Kosten said in a telephone interview.

The cocaine molecules eventually pass through the kidneys and are excreted through the urine.

That stops the drug from reaching the brain and producing a sought-after high.

Use of the vaccine would lead to a gradual tapering of dependence, Kosten said.

"Gradually, antibody levels would rise. If you kept using (cocaine), you'd get less and less of an effect."

Of all the drugs tested, cocaine is the easiest one for which to develop a vaccine because of an enzyme in the bloodstream, cholinesterase, that helps break it down, Kosten said.

He has also begun to test vaccines for methamphetamine and heroin in animal studies, and hopes to eventually add nicotine to the list.

"That's going to be the moneymaker," he said.

The injections are designed for therapeutic -- not for preventative -- use, and are meant for those already suffering from addiction.

That, however, does not rule out other possible future uses, Kosten said.

"You could potentially inject pregnant cocaine users with the vaccine to prevent their fetuses from becoming contaminated," he explained.

Other uses could include administering the vaccine to high-risk adolescents in order to prevent them from becoming addicted early on, he said, while acknowledging that this would raise serious ethical and legal questions.

Testing for the cocaine vaccine has included a series of five injections over a period of three months, Kosten said.

The vaccine has one more large scale human study scheduled before it is ready for the federal Food and Drug Administration approval process.

A similar nicotine vaccine is also in the early stages of testing by several groups of European researchers. Kosten hopes to have the vaccine on the market in two to three years.

Quote:Other uses could include administering the vaccine to high-risk adolescents in order to prevent them from becoming addicted early on, he said, while acknowledging that this would raise serious ethical and legal questions.

How upset would you be if your parents inoculated you with the vaccine for substance X, Y, or Z before you ever got to experience the effects for yourself? Especially if their decision to vaccinate was based on misinformation clouded with fear.

well, I learned the hard way, by being curious led to some addiction which landed me in jail a few times by some poor choices, so I'm torn between that question, If it was possible for my parents to vaccine me in my early teens, so I wouldn't of gone through the troubles I did at age 19, i would say hell yes, but on the other end, I came out of it w/a life experience *a very expensive life experience* but came out a stronger and better person w/different perceptions on things, to that I would say no. So I don't really know, but if your family has had a history w/drug usage and addiction, then I could see why parents would want this for their children. Maybe at the age of 13, parents could talk to their teens and ask them what they want, just a little communication.

What ever happened to good parenting? it seems society doesn't demand much from parents these days. The schools are solely responsible for educating our children, drugs are given to keep kids from being too hyper, and now drugs are going to be the method of choice for keeping kids off drugs. Man, parenting sure is getting easy.

It seems to me that people have a desire to alter their consciousness. do you think that if they started vaccinating for addiction to certain drugs, other drugs would start to be designed and abused?

I have no doubt that drug use and those who abuse such indulgences will always be a hot issue. Hospitals use cocaine to stop bleeding of nasal cavities in extreme cases and opiates used by the common junkie ease the suffering of the deathly ill. Even though we have outlawed these drugs they still find there way into the health care market. I think if we did find a way to eliminate these drugs from the world by use of vaccinations, new addictions would spawn. The drug market black or legitimate is much too profitable for society to eliminate it.

I moved this out of the sandbox as it has some potential for decent discussion.

Couldn't agree more with DO on the parents are getting off easy.

Also, as it was said before, doesn't it seem weird that people are at a point were we are going to give someone a drug to prevent them from using other drugs.

"That's going to be the moneymaker," on the hopes of a nicotine preventative drug. As UtoSoc pointed out its all about the money.

And to answer hooks question; Very upset, they would essentially be denying you to become YOU.

Quote:The injections are designed for therapeutic -- not for preventative -- use, and are meant for those already suffering from addiction.

This was a very important line in that article. As long as this treatment is used only after adverse symptoms are realized, I see it as being a viable option. It is only when it is used as a preventative measure that the real ethical difficulties come into play.

Would you take a hypothetical drug that served to reduce the pleasure gained in ingesting saturated fat (or trans fat)?

I read today in an RN magazine that they are currently working on a vaccine to prevent lung cancer. Would those of you who smoke consider taking this? why or why not? The vaccine is used to prevent the cancer from forming in the first place. It is a known fact that lung cancer is the leading killer among the cancers, and that smoking cessation is the most practical way to prevent such cancer. Still, many Americans smoke, so does this seem to be a positive solution? Of course, this is assuming that the vaccine is approved and actually works. It is currently in the trial stages.

Since the possible side-effects of the lung cancer vaccine were not mentioned, of course I would take it. Shouldn't everyone? Lung cancer is not something only smokers get. If someone decided to take the lung cancer vaccine and continue to smoke, they must not forget about smoking's real killer, cardiovascular disease.