WAR ON DRUGS ENLISTS AN ANTIBODY

Hoping to combat cocaine overdoses or make it difficult for a
rehabilitating addict to get high, scientists have enlisted the immune
system to generate antibodies that bind cocaine and clear it from a
person's system. One concern, however, is that a person could respond
by simply taking more cocaine than the antibodies could mop up.

An antibody that chews up a cocaine molecule and comes back for more
has now been proven to protect mice from becoming addicted to and
overdosing on cocaine, Donald W. Landry of Columbia University and his
colleagues say in the August 18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIC
OF SCIENCES.

The drug-busting protein, known as a catalytic antibody, splits a
molecule of cocaine into two harmless fragments without destroying
itself (Science News: 3/27/93, p. 199). In trials on volunteers,
researchers have already started tests of cocaine antibodies that simply
bind to the drug, as well as a vaccine that induces such antibodies,
notes Frank Vocci of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda,
Md. "The [immune] approach is alive and well. It's laboring along, and
we should have an answer in a year or two about how viable this approach
is," he says. - J.T.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry