The Daily OrangeHealth | Cracking the habit
Researchers develop vaccine to curb coccaine high, addiction
By Olivia Shelton
Posted: 10/12/09, 3:08 AM EST Section: News
Cocaine users may be able to take a vaccine to cure their addiction.
A trial, results of which were published in early October, tested the effectiveness of a recently developed vaccine to wean cocaine addicts from their drug of choice by preventing them from feeling a high.
The way the vaccine works is by producing antibodies against cocaine, said Bridget Martell, an assistant professor at Yale University who led the vaccine trial. Martell said that producing antibodies is a key to battling diseases like drug addiction.
The vaccine contains cholera and a small amount of cocaine. With such an unfamiliar combination, the body produces antibodies against cocaine and cholera. Because of the cocaine antibodies, a user cannot feel the affects normally associated with the drug and ideally stops using it.
The concept behind the antibodies is to prevent the feeling of euphoria from occurring when a person snorts, smokes or injects crack-cocaine, Martell said.
One hundred and fifteen people, who were already involved in programs to break their opiate addictions, between the ages of 18 and 46 completed the trial. Fifty-eight people received the vaccine while the other 57 received a placebo. Urine samples from the participants were tested three times a week for six months.
Thirty eight percent of the participants given the cocaine vaccine had high antibody levels by the end of the trial. Fifty three percent of those participants were able to cut their cocaine use in half, according to an article on HealthNews.com.
Martell said even though a person can revisit the drug after the vaccine's effects wear off in two months, a vaccine like this could potentially help a person overcome their addiction.
"(The user) isn't feeling the good feeling he or she expects to feel, so he or she is motivated to stop using that particular substance via cocaine or heroin or what not," Martell said.
A theoretical risk of the cocaine vaccine is that a cocaine addict would try to increase his or her dosage of cocaine in order to fight the effects of the vaccine. This is a risk Martell said her team of researchers is willing to take.
A trial, results of which were published in early October, tested the effectiveness of a recently developed vaccine to wean cocaine addicts from their drug of choice by preventing them from feeling a high.
The way the vaccine works is by producing antibodies against cocaine, said Bridget Martell, an assistant professor at Yale University who led the vaccine trial. Martell said that producing antibodies is a key to battling diseases like drug addiction.
The vaccine contains cholera and a small amount of cocaine. With such an unfamiliar combination, the body produces antibodies against cocaine and cholera. Because of the cocaine antibodies, a user cannot feel the affects normally associated with the drug and ideally stops using it.
The concept behind the antibodies is to prevent the feeling of euphoria from occurring when a person snorts, smokes or injects crack-cocaine, Martell said.
One hundred and fifteen people, who were already involved in programs to break their opiate addictions, between the ages of 18 and 46 completed the trial. Fifty-eight people received the vaccine while the other 57 received a placebo. Urine samples from the participants were tested three times a week for six months.
Thirty eight percent of the participants given the cocaine vaccine had high antibody levels by the end of the trial. Fifty three percent of those participants were able to cut their cocaine use in half, according to an article on HealthNews.com.
Martell said even though a person can revisit the drug after the vaccine's effects wear off in two months, a vaccine like this could potentially help a person overcome their addiction.
"(The user) isn't feeling the good feeling he or she expects to feel, so he or she is motivated to stop using that particular substance via cocaine or heroin or what not," Martell said.
A theoretical risk of the cocaine vaccine is that a cocaine addict would try to increase his or her dosage of cocaine in order to fight the effects of the vaccine. This is a risk Martell said her team of researchers is willing to take.
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