Nicotine addiction vaccine enters trials
A vaccine to treat nicotine addiction has entered phase
I clinical trials. TA-NIC is administered by intramuscular injection and
works by preventing nicotine from entering the brain.
John St Clair Roberts, medical director of Xenova,
the company developing the vaccine, told The Journal that the vaccine
was designed to produce specific antibodies that recognise and bind to
free nicotine in the blood. The antibody-nicotine complex formed is too
large to cross the blood-brain barrier, thus keeping nicotine out of the
brain. He added that after the vaccine had been given, nicotine craving
was not reinforced when a cigarette was smoked.
The company expects that clinical development will
take four years and hopes to have the vaccine on the market within five
years.
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