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How does the new vaccine for nicotine addiction work?
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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There was a new vaccine for nicotine addiction, but it has been tested so far only on laboratory mice. Scientists-inventors are very optimistic, because one dose of the drug protects animals from craving for smoking!
The vaccine was developed at Weill Cornell Medical College, where the experimental animals successfully demonstrated the ability of the liver to produce antibodies that neutralize the action of nicotine with the help of a new medicine. Scientists have long worked in this direction, ensuring that the body itself cleanses the blood of poison.
Under the action of the vaccine, the body creates its own antibodies and develops immunity to nicotine addiction. Drugs that were tested previously required repeated repeated expensive injections. It was also difficult to calculate the dose of funds, since their actions were strictly individual.
The new vaccine will be a rescue for smokers who have already experienced all the existing options for fighting, but were defeated. According to statistics, about 80% of people who quit smoking again returned to their habit.
Scientists are constantly looking for new ways to make the body give up nicotine addiction. Before the new drug, there were two types of vaccines: active and passive. The first type is a foreign agent for human immunity, the body sees a "scout" and produces antibodies against it. But a tiny molecule of nicotine did not fit into the active vaccine. The second type is the passive vaccine from a whole complex of ready-made antibodies, which are necessary for the development of immunity.
The research department of Veil Cornell has developed a third type - a genetic vaccine. Scientists have designed antibodies that neutralize nicotine, and put them in a virus that does not adversely affect a person. After interacting with the genetic vaccine, the liver cells begin to produce their antibodies, and in large numbers.
Most importantly, only a very small part of the toxic nicotine reaches the smoker's brain. As a result, a person will not get what he expects from a cigarette, and without this pleasure, the very meaning of this bad habit is lost. The vaccine can also be used as a preventative to exclude the occurrence of nicotine addiction.
In humans, the vaccine has not yet been tested, rats and primates are on the line, but the mice that participated in the experiment feel no worse than before it began.
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