COMPANY STARTS TEST OF COCAINE VACCINE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. biotechnology company said Thursday it was
starting tests on a cocaine vaccine that would stop users getting a high
from the drug. Massachusetts-based ImmuLogic said it was starting Phase I
safety tests of the vaccine, which it said had shown promise in trials
using rats.

``The vaccine is intended to be used as part of a comprehensive treatment
program to prevent relapse. We hope that this vaccine will provide
effective therapy for the treatment of the serious disease of cocaine
addiction,'' Dr. Joseph Marr, ImmuLogic's president, said in a statement.

``The idea behind it is that the vaccine will induce antibodies that will
recognize cocaine,'' Barbara Fox, vice-president of immunology at the firm,
said in a telephone interview.

``If the patient then uses cocaine, the antibody binds the drug and cocaine
can't get into the patient's brain. The patient can't get high.''

Studies have shown that cocaine acts on dopamine, a neurotransmitter that
carries signals between brain cells and which is important to movement and
motivation. High levels of dopamine create feelings of euphoria.

Cocaine blocks the re-uptake of dopamine, keeping it from being absorbed
back into cells and thus keeping more of it around for longer.

In 1995 a team at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California,
said they had created an anti-cocaine vaccine using a chemical very similar
to cocaine, known as a conjugate, to create antibodies against the drug.

``(Ours) is a very similar sort of approach,'' Fox said.

The ImmuLogic vaccine is synthesized from a derivative of cocaine, which is
attached to a protein and to alum, a chemical commonly used in vaccines.
The identity of the protein carrier is being kept secret by the company.

Fox said the vaccine had shown good results in rats. ``In animal
experiments it's been able to prevent rats from taking cocaine, so we think
it's all very encouraging,'' she said.

Test rats addicted to cocaine and trained to self-administer it by pressing
a lever stopped doing so once immunized with the vaccine.

``We think that's a pretty good model,'' Fox said.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is helping fund the study. NIDA
estimates that 10 percent of people who try cocaine go on to become
addicted. Surveys show some 22 million Americans have tried the drug.