Nicotine Vaccine Test Results
The results of a study of a nicotine vaccine still in research werepresented last month at an American Heart Association conference.The vaccine, called NicVax, is being developed to immunize smokersagainst the addiction associated with cigarette smoking. According toinformation previously reported, the vaccine encourages the body’simmune system to attack nicotine in much the same way that it attacks aforeign bacteria or virus. The theory is that as a result of this attack,most of the nicotine that would come from smoking would not reach thebrain, making smoking less pleasurable and perhaps easier to give up.This is a different approach than that used by nicotine gums, skinpatches, and nasal sprays which are designed to replace the nicotine aperson receives when they smoke with smaller amounts.
In one study, more than twice as many people given 5 shots of thevaccine stopped smoking than those given placebo (fake) vaccine shots.Health experts agree that getting people to stop smoking could becomeone of the most important developments in improving the health of allcitizens in this and other countries.