Students to help test anti-smoking vaccine

The University is one of nine nationwide that will test a shot that "immunizes" smokers against feeling the effects of nicotine as a way of helping them quit smoking.

The vaccine, NicVax, binds with nicotine to make a much larger molecule that can't cross the barrier from the bloodstream into the brain, said public and community health professor Elbert Glover, who is heading the trial. As smoking becomes less pleasurable and less reinforcing, it might be easier for smokers to combat their cravings, he said.

"When you smoke a cigarette, nicotine comes in and releases a surge of dopamine as a reward," Glover said. When smokers don't get this reward, they may look at a cigarette and think, "'What's the point?'"

The vaccine study is limited to smokers who have smoked 15 cigarettes a day for at least three years and focuses on active smokers who are motivated to quit.

So far, about 250 volunteers have signed up to receive a few randomized shots of either the vaccine or a placebo during the course of a year. They will be monitored through health checkups and counseling.

"I think this is fantastic because this is the cutting edge of tobacco research," said Jessica Rath, a research assistant involved in the study. "This is the first time they are treating nicotine dependence without nicotine, so they are treating the addiction without the addiction."

A recent report released by Massachusetts Department of Health shows the level of nicotine found in U.S. cigarettes has risen about 10 percent in the past six years, making it harder to quit.

About 70 percent of the 49 million adults and 6 million teenagers who smoke in the U.S. say they would like to quit, and every year about 40 percent of them try, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Less than 3 percent succeed.

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, the Boca Raton-based company with labs in Rockville, had its initial trials funded in part by a recent $4.1 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

If the results show that the vaccine works, it will be up for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Glover is confident the study will pass.

"The study is going well and I would say there's no reason why in four to five years the vaccine wouldn't be ready for the market," Glover said.

Contact reporter Eric Schaffer at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.