Scientists in Brazil, the world’s second-biggest consumer of cocaine, have announced the development of an innovative new treatment for addiction to the drug and its powerful derivative crack: a vaccine. Dubbed “Calixcoca,” the test vaccine, which has shown promising results in trials on animals, triggers an immune response that blocks cocaine and crack from reaching the brain, which researchers hope will help users break the cycle of addiction.
Put simply, addicts would no longer get high from the drug. If the treatment gets regulatory approval, it would be the first time cocaine addiction is treated using a vaccine, said psychiatrist Frederico Garcia, coordinator of the team that developed the treatment at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
The vaccine works by triggering patients’ immune systems to produce antibodies that bind to cocaine molecules in the bloodstream, making them too large to pass into the brain’s mesolimbic system, or “reward centre”, where the drug normally stimulates high levels of pleasure-inducing dopamine. Calixcoca has so far proven effective in testing on animals, producing significant levels of antibodies against cocaine and few side effects.
Garcia says Calixcoca could reshape addiction treatment. “There’s no specific registered treatment for cocaine and crack addiction. We currently use a combination of psychological counseling, social assistance and rehabilitation, when necessary,” he says. Calixcoca could add an important tool to that regimen, helping patients at critical stages of recovery, such as when they leave rehab, he said.