New treatment for crystal meth addicts after scientists develop a vaccine that blocks the drug's effect on the brain

A vaccine to treat crystal meth addicts is a step closer to fruition after scientists discovered how to block the drug's effect on the brain.  Tests on rats have shown the vaccine stops them being affected by the drug, which is taken by 25 million people worldwide. If it works on humans it would be the first specific vaccine for methamphetamine addition, reports the journal Biological Psychiatry.

 

The popularity of crystal meth has soared in the last 20 years and the drug is particularly addictive

Professor Michael Taffe, from the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) where the research was carried out, said: 'This is an early-stage study, but its results are comparable to those for other drug vaccines that have then gone to clinical trials.' The popularity of crystal meth has soared in the last 20 years and the drug is particularly addictive. Indeed, methamphetamine has become one of the most common drugs of abuse around the world.

But developing effective vaccines has proved problematic until now. Just as traditional vaccines evoke antibody responses against viruses or bacteria, anti-drug antibodies are meant to grab hold of drug molecules and keep them from getting into the brain -- preventing the drug from giving the user a high and removing the incentive for taking the drug.

 

The vaccine is thought to work by stopping drug molecules from getting into brain, so users can't feel their effects

Two years ago researcher Kim Jands and his colleagues developed six possible meth vaccines including one, MH6, that blocked the effects of the drug. For the new study they looked at MH6 in greater detail, and found it prevented a rise in body temperature and burst of hyperactivity that occur after meth exposure. Underlying these promising effects on behavioural measures was a robust antibody response, which in vaccinated rats kept more of the drug in the bloodstream and out of the nervous system, compared to control rats. 'These are encouraging results that we'd like to follow up with further animal tests, and, we hope, with clinical tests in humans some day,' said co-researcher Michelle Miller.

Dr Janda said: 'I think this vaccine has all the right features to allow it to move forward in development. 'It certainly works better than the other active vaccines for meth that have been reported so far.' Vaccines against nicotine and cocaine are already in clinical trials.
 

 Source: Daily Mail UK 

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