SPECIAL VACCINES IN WORKS TO HELP ADDICTS KICK DRUGS

NEW ORLEANS -- Designer antibodies may someday be used to immunize people
against cocaine and other drugs to block the rush that users crave.

If these vaccines fulfill their promise, they could revolutionize emergency
treatment for PCP and amphetamines. And though they won't cure addiction,
they could also help people who want to kick the habit, researchers say.

"Our goal would be to protect against the sudden unexpected urge to use, so
that if the patient used it, he wouldn't get the effects," said Dr. Michael
Owen, a pharmacologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
who hopes to begin tests this year on a PCP overdose treatment.

The illegal drugs all have molecules so tiny they sneak unnoticed through
the body's immune system. To create antibodies, researchers must hook the
molecule to a protein big enough to set off the immune system's alarms.

The drug-plus-protein can be injected directly, to prompt the body to make
its own antibodies. Or scientists can create the antibodies by working with
laboratory animals and inject them into patients.

Either way, the antibody grabs the drug in the bloodstream, before it gets
to the brain.

At least, that's how it works in animals so far.

Antibodies could be used to treat an overdose or block a drug's effects for
a longer period, perhaps a month or more.

Both PCP and methamphetamine last for days in the body, unlike cocaine,
which is metabolized in 20 minutes or so.

PCP intoxication can be fatal, and both it and amphetamine psychosis can
leave permanent mental scars, said Frank Vocci, head of medications
development for the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism.

The ability to bind the drugs to antibodies could be a major leap forward in
treating them, he said.

Cocaine addiction is a much bigger and trickier problem. More than 2 million
people need treatment. About 900,000 a year start treatment, but at least
three-quarters go back to the drug, Vocci said.

"Maybe if we had something to help them out for the initial period, it might
boost the efficacy keep them in longer," he said.

Scientists involved in the research discussed their work Monday at a meeting
of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.

Already, one cocaine vaccine, developed by a biomedical company in
Massachusetts, is being tried on people at a Connecticut clinic. So far,
only the vaccine's safety has been tested, and it had virtually no side
effects, said Dr. Thomas Kosten, a psychiatry professor at Yale University.

The study was not designed to look at the effectiveness of the vaccine, but
a few of the participants reported that cocaine "doesn't seem to have the
bang that it used to have," Kosten said.