LG
05-18-2013, 10:39 AM
If it passes medical trials with humans, the vaccine could revolutionize care for millions of cocaine addicts.
There’s new hope for cocaine addicts trying to kick the habit.
A vaccine that eats up cocaine like “Pac-Man” is one step closer to being tested on humans.
Weill Cornell Medical College said in a press release Friday that its anti-cocaine vaccine passed primate testing. Medical trials with human patients could begin within a year.
"The vaccine eats up the cocaine in the blood like a little Pac-Man before it can reach the brain," said Ronald G. Crystal, the vaccine study's lead investigator.
Normally, cocaine floods the brain with dopamine to produce a high. The vaccine stops this by treating cocaine like a virus and inducing an immune response that intercepts the drug.
The vaccine could revolutionize care for the approximately 1.4 million cocaine users living in the U.S.
"We believe this strategy is a win-win for those individuals … who are committed to breaking their addiction to the drug," Crystal said. "Even if a person who receives the anti-cocaine vaccine falls off the wagon, cocaine will have no effect."
In earlier tests, researchers observed the vaccine in action in mice, where it "gobbled up cocaine." The most recent tests used primates, who are biologically closer to humans, and saw the same cocaine-gobbling effect.
Crystal called the results of the study "a direct demonstration in a large animal … that we can reduce the amount of cocaine that reached the brain sufficiently so that it is below the threshold by which you get high."
In the mouse study, mice were less hyperactive when given cocaine after they’d been vaccinated.
Crystal said that when the vaccine does reach humans, cocaine addicts will need a series of booster shots, though the exact number isn’t clear yet.
msn
There’s new hope for cocaine addicts trying to kick the habit.
A vaccine that eats up cocaine like “Pac-Man” is one step closer to being tested on humans.
Weill Cornell Medical College said in a press release Friday that its anti-cocaine vaccine passed primate testing. Medical trials with human patients could begin within a year.
"The vaccine eats up the cocaine in the blood like a little Pac-Man before it can reach the brain," said Ronald G. Crystal, the vaccine study's lead investigator.
Normally, cocaine floods the brain with dopamine to produce a high. The vaccine stops this by treating cocaine like a virus and inducing an immune response that intercepts the drug.
The vaccine could revolutionize care for the approximately 1.4 million cocaine users living in the U.S.
"We believe this strategy is a win-win for those individuals … who are committed to breaking their addiction to the drug," Crystal said. "Even if a person who receives the anti-cocaine vaccine falls off the wagon, cocaine will have no effect."
In earlier tests, researchers observed the vaccine in action in mice, where it "gobbled up cocaine." The most recent tests used primates, who are biologically closer to humans, and saw the same cocaine-gobbling effect.
Crystal called the results of the study "a direct demonstration in a large animal … that we can reduce the amount of cocaine that reached the brain sufficiently so that it is below the threshold by which you get high."
In the mouse study, mice were less hyperactive when given cocaine after they’d been vaccinated.
Crystal said that when the vaccine does reach humans, cocaine addicts will need a series of booster shots, though the exact number isn’t clear yet.
msn