If smoking a cigarette gave us no pleasure, would we stop doing it? Scientists think so. For this reason, researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a synthetic nanoparticle-based vaccine that stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies that "block" nicotine . In this way, the nicotine in cigarettes does not reach the brain. And if the brain does not feel the "pleasure" of smoking, the addiction can be eliminated.
As the researchers explain, although nicotine is not a virus, the vaccine acts as if it is. In fact, Selecta Biosciences, the company that has already tested this invention in the laboratory, has designed other similar synthetic vaccines to fight cancer, diabetes or transplant rejection.
The effect of the new SEL-068 vaccine lasts for several years and, instead of removing the "monkey" like the patches and other remedies used until now, what it does is that smokers are not able to "relieve" their addiction when they take a puff to a cigarette. Human clinical trials will begin next summer.
