The Vaccine That Could End Users' Cravings for Cocaine

Jan 04, 06:02 PM

A VACCINE for cocaine addiction that could help users kick the habit is being developed by scientists.

The medication works by stimulating the immune system to attack cocaine before it reaches the brain, where it leaves addicts craving more.

Usually, the immune system is unable to recognise cocaine and other drug molecules because they are so small and it cannot make antibodies attack them.

But to help the immune system distinguish the drug, researchers in the U.S. attached inactivated cocaine to inactivated cholera proteins.

The immune system then makes antibodies to the combination, which is harmless, and recognises the cocaine when it is ingested.

Those antibodies then bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it would normally generate the addictive 'high'.

The vaccine, which is currently in clinical trials, was developed by scientists from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Dr Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor, who conducted the research with his wife Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist, said: 'For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful.

'At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won't get high - and will lost interest.' Baylor neuroscientist David Eagleman added: 'It's a very clever idea. Scientists have spent the last few decades figuring out reward pathways in the brain and how drugs like cocaine hijack the system.

'It turns out those pathways are difficult to rewire once they've seen the drug. But the vaccine just circumvents all that.'