Nebraska researcher to study possible nicotine vaccine.

2004 APR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- After years of research, a biochemist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center has been awarded a national grant to study a possible nicotine vaccine.

Sam Sanderson, PhD, an associate professor in the School of Allied Health Professions, received a 1-year $100,000 grant earlier this month from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

While studying how certain tiny molecules called peptides, which are groupings of amino acids, interact with the immune system, Sanderson said one peptide stood out.

"I was intrigued by how it interacted with cell receptors. I knew I was on to something," he said.

The synthetic vaccine, which would come in a patch form, uses the peptide to better alert the immune system of a foreign molecule. In this case, the immune system would recognize the nicotine and begin forming antibodies to fight it. The antibodies then bind up the nicotine, preventing it from getting to the brain and releasing its addictive effects, Sanderson said.

Marilyn Thoman, an immunologist and associate professor at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in San Diego, California, said the ramifications of a biological tool to treat nicotine addiction would be enormously powerful. The addiction traditionally has been battled with a psychological approach, she said.

"He has extremely promising and exciting preclinical work," Thoman said. "As with any new drug at this point in its development there's a great deal of promise that just has to go through the trial process and the further testing and so forth before one can clearly say whether it will be effective and safe for use," she said.