Search is on for anti-smoking vaccine

Researchers in the United States have begun a major study on a vaccine to prevent smoking.

If the trial of NicVax – designed to block the pleasurable sensations of satisfying a nicotine addiction – is successful it could be on the market two years after that, the New York Times reported.

It would work by stimulating production of antibodies that could latch on to nicotine molecules and prevent them from reaching the brain.

The trial is being carried out by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, and eight other institutions.

Dr Frank Vocci, director of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse’s division of pharmacotherapies, said the US Food and Drug Administration had put the NicVax trial on a fast track for approval.

“That means they will do a rapid review and get back to the sponsor within so many months,” he said.

“They’ve put a spotlight on it and really tried to move it along, because it would be a unique product.”

The classic “nicotine buzz” occurs when the nicotine molecule travels in the bloodstream across the “blood-brain barrier” and reaches specific receptors in the brain.

But when the antibodies generated by NicVax bind to the nicotine molecule, they make it too big to cross the blood-brain barrier

That should reduce the pleasure associated with smoking.

Dr Victor Reus, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, who is lead investigator on the NicVax study, said that if it helps smokers quit, a key question will be whether booster shots could help prevent relapse.

The antibodies produced by a single NicVax injection last about a month, he said.

The multishot sequences being tested on around 300 people are designed to extend the antibody response for many months.

Thomas Rathjen, a spokesman for Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, said the results of the study should be available sometime next year.

But even if they are promising the company will have to conduct a final trial before it can apply for FDA approval.