Quit Smoking Vaccine

Sometime from late 2008 to 2010 we should see a quit smoking vaccine ready to use and on the market. Actually, there may be more than one, since there are several companies currently working on clinical trials.

What Are Quit Smoking Vaccines?

Most of these vaccines work by getting your body to create an immune response to nicotine. What this means is the vaccine creates antibodies in your body that will attach themselves to nicotine molecules.

Now, these vaccines will not work like a small pox vaccine, for instance. Vaccines that protect us against diseases actually create antibodies that seek out the disease cells and destroy them. Quit smoking vaccines are not going to destroy nicotine cells, but attach themselves to them to make them too big to enter the brain.

To protect our brains from disease, we have a barrier that essentially filters our blood to only let in molecules or cells that are less than a certain size. This filtering system protects our brains from a lot of harmful substances. Not everything is filtered out, though.

Molecules of common drugs like heroin, cocaine, nicotine, and methamphetamine, for instance, are small enough to enter the brain.

A quit smoking vaccine would make the nicotine molecule so big that it could not cross the brain barrier. The effect of this would that the smoker would not get “high”, or that smoking rush, when they smoke. No “high, no more reason to smoke.

Companies Making Quit Smoking Vaccines

There are several companies working on these vaccines. Nabi Pharmaceuticals is working on a vaccine called NicVAX. Also, Cytos, a Swiss company, Xenova Group, and Prommune are also working on vaccines.

Clinical trials have been running since 2006. A vaccine might be ready as early as late 2008. You’ll have to check these companies websites to get more information about availability.

How Effective Are Quit Smoking Vaccines?

Some early trials had a success rate over 50%. That is over half the smokers in the trial quit for a period of 30 days. More recent trials have had success rates between 20 to 30%. Close to a third of the participants actually quit for a 6 month period. I’m not sure of the difference between the trials and the reason behind these different success rates. (When I find out, I’ll add to this article, or write another article.)

Why are these vaccines not 100% effective? Well, one reason is that smokers drop out of the program. You don’t get one shot and then you’re done. It takes about five shots over a several month time frame to really work. The body has to be primed to create the antibodies first before they are available to attach themselves to the nicotine molecules.

Of course smokers drop out of these trials because smoking is psychologically addictive as well as just physically addictive. In other words, there is a underlying reason most people smoke in the first place. That’s why counseling is so important to address these psychological issues. Resolve these and you no longer have any real need to smoke, other than the fact you have to because of physical addiction. Take a look at my article about hypnosis for more on this.

Side Effects

Some participants in these studies reported some side effects of these vaccines, such as colds, respiratory infections, and headaches. Researchers have said that the body tolerates the vaccine well, though. There is some concern that these large molecules that are created by this process might damage the kidneys. Of course the clinical trial process in the United States is not completely perfect (Vioxx?), but when you think about the number of drugs created, it’s actually remarkably safe. So, hopefully they will resolve the issue about kidney problems during the studies.

Conclusion

It’s going to be a while before these vaccines are available. (I’m writing this in early 2008.) Even when they are on the market and you can get a prescription for one, they are not 100% effective--mainly due to psychological addiction. So, you don’t want to wait for a vaccine to start your quit smoking program.

It looks like the quit smoking vaccine is going to be about as effective as other drugs like Chantix and Wellbutrin, especially when combined with counseling and other methods.

You have to quit smoking, however! Look what it is doing to your health and the health of those around you. Don’t wait for the vaccines! But when they are available, a quit smoking vaccine surely would be worth considering to help you quit.

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