Vaccine holds out new hope for smokers

There might be new hope for smokers who want to stub out the habit and live a healthier life, in the form of a vaccine that has been found to bring about an anti-nicotine antibody response.

Swiss biotechnological company Cytos' experimental vaccine - CYT002-NicQb - has been found to generate antibodies that neutralise nicotine. The antibodies stop nicotine from entering the brain and producing the addictive sensation which smokers crave.

The vaccine could be a breakthrough method for smokers wanting to kick the habit, which is becoming increasingly frowned upon.

Results unveiled by the company last weekend showed that a third of the smokers who received the vaccine responded well and obtained a high level of antibodies. More than half of those - 57 per cent - stopped smoking.

However, those smokers who generated low or medium levels of antibodies did not perform much better than the placebo group - 31 per cent of smokers in the placebo group stopped smoking, while 32 per cent of smokers who produced low or medium levels of antibodies quit the habit.

Contacted yesterday, Health Promotion Department director Mario Spiteri described this as an "advance", although more studies still have to be conducted.

"Anything that scientifically helps people stop smoking is most welcome," he said.

Dr Spiteri said it was also encouraging to note that a number of people all over the world wanted to stop the habit, hence the research going on into ways of helping them. "We hope that this vaccine will be as good as the experts are thinking and it will help people who want to stop smoking," he said.

The results of the phase two clinical trial were presented by principal investigator Jacques Cornuz at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology last Saturday. Prof Cornuz expressed his excitement at the outcome of the study.

"The data clearly suggests that antibodies against nicotine are effective in helping people quit smoking. There is certainly no doubt that new approaches such as vaccination are urgently needed," he said.

Prof. Cornuz said although smoking causes 30 per cent of all cancer deaths, including 87 per cent of deaths from lung cancer, there are still 1.3 billion smokers all over the world. World Health Organisation statistics show that there are five million tobacco-related deaths every year, making tobacco use the leading cause of preventable death in the world.

Statistics from the Department for Health Information show that in Malta the number of smoking-attributable deaths increased from 289 in 1987 to 344 last year.

"Each smoker loses on average more than 10 years of lifetime as a result of this serious addiction. I believe that the vaccine approach has the potential to dramatically alter the way we will treat smoking addiction in the future," said Prof. Cornuz.