Health Tips

A vaccine that stops you smoking because you are no longer getting a buzz from the nicotine looks like becoming a reality say researchers. The vaccine has been developed by the Swiss biotechnology company Cytos.

How does smoking vaccine work?
The vaccine is based on a bacteriopage, a virus that attacks bacteria. The vaccine uses part of a protein that attracts an immune response to nicotine. Antibodies bind to the nicotine and it then prevents it from getting through to the brain. Without the ‘high’ that you get from the nicotine the incentive to smoke diminishes. The vaccine should make it easier makes it easier to give up tobacco.

Quit smoking vaccine research findings
The research headed by Jacques Cornuz of University Hospital Lausanne has had some significant results. 57% of smokers who achieved high levels of antibodies against nicotine after receiving the vaccine stopped smoking completely for at least six months.

There was also a large placebo effect with the vaccine. 31% of the people who received dummy vaccine quit smoking. About 33% of those who developed lower levels of antibodies also quit smoking.

The study volunteers all smoked between 10 and 40 cigarettes a day for at least three years and were aged between 18 and 70 years of age.

Side effects of the vaccinations were redness and tenderness at the injection site. Some people experienced flulike symptoms that resolved within 24 hours.

Companies developing vaccines
Cytos have been publicizing other vaccine hopes such diverse things as Alzheimer’s, obesity and hypertension. Cytos is only one of a number of other companies look at development of a vaccine for smoking, they include the Xenova Group, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals and Prommune.

When will the anti smoking vaccine be ready?
Researchers believe that the vaccine could be available within 1-2 years. That’s a long time to go on punishing your lungs and risking your health. Lung cancer, infection and chronic irreversible damage may not wait for you. Quit now!

Orlando – An experimental anti-nicotine vaccine has shown encouraging results in helping smokers kick the habit, according to a study presented to a major conference of cancer specialists here. Almost 60 percent of the 341 smokers who took the vaccine stopped smoking for at least six months, said Jacques Cornuz, a Swiss researcher who led the vaccine study. Cornuz, of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland, said about a third of those who developed lower levels of antibodies stopped smoking, about the same fraction as those who received a placebo vaccine.

Tobacco is highly addictive and smoking is the major cause of cancer deaths in the world. There are estimated to be more than 1.3 billion regular smokers in the world. Two thirds of those who took part in the study received five doses of the vaccine over four months, while the rest took a placebo. About a third of the subjects were not included in the final analysis because they also used a nicotine gum or patch which could have hit the results, Cornuz told the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual conference on Saturday.

The vaccine, developed by Cytos Biotechnology of Zurich, is based on a bacteriophage virus which attacks bacteria. The bacteriophage in the vaccine neutralises the nicotine before it can stimulate the brain, according to Cornuz. Cytos Biotechnology now hopes to carry out more widespread medical studies to show the vaccine is safe and hopes to bring it on the market around 2010.