A Shot In The Head Of Nicotine Addiction
Still, more than 400,000 deaths occur in the U.S. each
year from smoking-related illnesses. The reason for these deaths is that
smoking greatly increases the risk of getting lung cancer, heart attack,
chronic lung diseases, stroke, and many other cancers. Moreover, smoking
is perhaps the most preventable cause of breathing (respiratory)
diseases within the USA.
?Smoking harms not just
the smoker, but also family members, coworkers, and others who breathe
the smoker's cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke. Among infants up
to 18 months of age, secondhand smoke is associated with as many as
300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year. In addition,
secondhand smoke from a parent's cigarette increases a child's chances
for middle ear problems, causes coughing and wheezing, and worsens
asthma.
A new vaccine, called NicVAX, could make it easier for
smokers to quit. Of the nearly 34 million people in this country who
have tried to quit smoking, only 1.2 million have actually managed to
kick the habit permanently, according to the United States Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. But a new vaccine, called NicVAX, could
make it easier for quitters to win.
NicVAX works by preventing
nicotine from entering the brain where it normally acts as a stimulant.
"An immunized tobacco user would theoretically receive no positive
reinforcement from nicotine use," said Robert Naso, Ph.D., a senior vice
president at Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, which developed the vaccine. Final
approval for NicVAX could take several years.
Nabi
Biopharmaceuticals is developing NicVAX ? (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine) a
novel and proprietary investigational vaccine to prevent and treat
nicotine addiction and as an aid to smoking cessation. NicVAX is
designed to cause the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to
nicotine and prevent it from entering the brain. We believe that these
nicotine antibodies will act like a "sponge" soaking up nicotine as it
circulates in the blood stream and preventing it from reaching the
brain. The positive stimulus in the brain that is normally caused by
nicotine would then no longer be present.
Preclinical studies
showed that vaccination with NicVAX can prevent nicotine from reaching
the brain and block the effects of nicotine, including effects that can
lead to addiction or can reinforce and maintain addiction.
Despite
widespread knowledge of tobacco's dangerous health effects, smoking
continues to pose a serious public health threat as the number of
teenage smokers increases and others are unable to quit due, in large
part, to tobacco's addictive properties. According to the CDC, an
estimated 70 percent (32.2 million) of smokers want to quit, but only
2.5 percent (1.2 million) per year succeed in quitting permanently.
NicVAX
is being developed to help the millions of patients in the U.S. and
potentially billions worldwide who are addicted to tobacco products, or
are at risk of becoming addicted.