By denaturing nicotine before it reaches the heart and brain, a new vaccine could mute the addictiveness of tobacco products
Posted 06.28.2012 at 1:55 pm
9 Comments
Smoking Kills
Challiyil Eswaramangalath Vipin via Wikimedia
Nicotine addiction is a hard habit to break. But what if you could never get hooked in the first place? Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York report in the journal Science Translational Medicine that they have developed a potential vaccine for nicotine addiction. In mice, the vaccine inhibits the effects of nicotine before they reach the heart or brain, making it seem as though the nicotine never entered the bloodstream.
The vaccine works by using the liver to churn out a steady flow of antibodies that destroy nicotine as it enters the bloodstream, before it can make the circulatory loop to the brain and the heart. Previous therapies have proven effective at doing this, but they have to be administered on a regular basis. In mice, one dose of the vaccine activated the antibody-producing function in the liver for life.
That raises the possibility of a single vaccination, introduced to a person once in his or her lifetime, that would free that person from nicotine’s addictive qualities for life. That person could still choose to enjoy a cigarette for the sheer pleasure of sucking sweet, sweet tarred tobacco smoke into his or her lungs, but the capacity for addiction would be muted. It could also be used to treat smokers who have exhausted other quitting aids.
[C-Health]
9 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Science
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
April 2013: How It Works
For our annual How It Works issue, we break down everything from the massive Falcon Heavy rocket to a tiny DNA sequencer that connects to a USB port. We also take a look at an ambitious plan for faster-than-light travel and dive into the billion-dollar science of dog food.
Plus the latest Legos, Cadillac's plug-in hybrid, a tractor built for the apocalypse, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- SCOTUS Justices Can’t Find Science On Same-Sex Marriage
- How It Works: The Most Powerful Space Rocket
- Over Time, Nuclear Power Would Kill Fewer People Than Petroleum
- Something Is Killing Up To Half Of America's Bees
- Solar Panels Now Make More Electricity Than They Use
- This Is Now The World's Lightest Material
- Speed Of Light In Vacuum Is Not Actually Constant, Study Finds
- Melting Glaciers Are Increasing Extent Of Sea Ice In Antarctica, Says Counterintuitive Study
- This Weird Green Rock Is From Mercury
- Climate Change Belongs In Classrooms, Say New National Science Education Guidelines
Most Emailed
Science
- How The World Will End, According To 1939
- Cthulhu Lives In The Gut Of A Termite
- FYI: Do Lobotomies Work?
- This Amazing, Zoomable Universe-In-A-Browser Puts Everything In Perspective
- BeerSci: Want To Wet-Hop Your Beer? Grow Your Own Fresh Hops
- You Have A 'Breathprint'
- Today On Mars: Watch Curiosity's Parachute Flap Around In The Wind
- How Big Is A Galaxy? Milky Way Shown To Scale
- BigPic: What Does This Photo, Taken From The ISS, Show?
- The Changing Forensic Science Of Arson Is Freeing Innocent Convicts
Most Viewed
Science
- How The World Will End, According To 1939
- Cthulhu Lives In The Gut Of A Termite
- FYI: Do Lobotomies Work?
- This Amazing, Zoomable Universe-In-A-Browser Puts Everything In Perspective
- BeerSci: Want To Wet-Hop Your Beer? Grow Your Own Fresh Hops
- You Have A 'Breathprint'
- Today On Mars: Watch Curiosity's Parachute Flap Around In The Wind
- How Big Is A Galaxy? Milky Way Shown To Scale
- BigPic: What Does This Photo, Taken From The ISS, Show?
- The Changing Forensic Science Of Arson Is Freeing Innocent Convicts
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor:Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Bravo!
As long as it's voluntary and not contingent upon receiving insurance benefits. There may be benefits to nicotine that people could miss out on in future therapies; this would also effect future generations.
I can already see this being a required vaccination for highschoolers, alongside Hep-C etc.
Many parents will probably choose to use this on their children on par with poor parenting skills. Can't complain except for possible side effects of closing an open channel into the human body.
I know someone whom is a hard-core addicted to smoking, if he got this I wonder what the result would be? I am guessing Insanity and massive withdrawal symptoms as he can't get the nico fix even if he tried.
Symptoms include: Decreased sensitivity to nicotine, nicotine poisoning, vomiting and low-altitude chemtrails...
Ok... first and foremost, Nicotine. is. not. addictive. Ask any Cigar smoker if they MUST have a cigar. Cigars have almost entire pack of cigarettes worth of nicotine, yet you NEVER see a Cigar smoker huddling out back under a dryer vent to get his "fix". Nicotine is not the reason people get addicted to Cigarettes, it's some of the 500 OTHER ingredients being dumped into cigarettes.
And are you ready to know WHO is funding this amazing Nicotine Vaccine? None other than Phillip Morris, yup, the same people pumping out cigarettes they are trying to "cure" you from, Phillip Morris also creates another "anti-smoking" product... the patch, they funded and continue to fund these products, because it costs smokers MORE to try to stop smoking than it does to just keep smoking. And now Phillip Morris is paying the FDA to help them put a stop to the Premium Cigar industry, why? Because they are losing Cigarette smokers when they learn that Cigars are not addictive, taste better, and have a community that is like no other "smoking" community. The FDA wants to ban "flavored(if it's not mint or natural it's banned)" cigars saying they are targeted towards kids, but they don't have anything to say about Cake, Marshmellow or Cotton Candy flavored Vodka.
Stop supporting "Big Tobacco" don't STOP smoking... just STOP smoking cigarettes or taking their aides to quit smoking, I've seen 100's of people switch from Cigarettes to cigars, and have had zero negative effects, the withdrawls from the crap in cigarettes is what causes the withdrawls not the nicotine...
cigarrights.org
Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978
"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC
Where is it and how do I get it?
@CodeZero
If it's the 500 other chemicals in cigarettes that cause the withdrawal symptoms then wouldn't you still experience withdrawals switching to cigars? I'm having a little trouble understanding your logic.