Researchers working on vaccine to cure cocaine addiction

Two US researchers are working on a cocaine vaccine that they hope will help cure cocaine addiction.

The scientists, from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston are hoping the vaccine will become the first-ever medication to treat people hooked on the drug.

The vaccine, which is currently in clinical trials, works by stimulating the immune system to attack the real thing when it's taken - before it reaches your brain and makes you crave it.

The immune system is unable to recognize cocaine and other drug molecules because they are so small and can't make antibodies attack them. To help the immune system distinguish the drug, inactivated cocaine is attached to inactivated cholera proteins.

The immune system then makes antibodies to the combination, which is harmless and recognizes the cocaine when it's ingested. Those antibodies then bind to the cocaine and stop it from reaching the brain, where it would normally generate the addictive 'high.'

The two researchers responsible for the finding are Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor, and his wife Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist.

Kosten said of his research: "For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful. At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but for those for whom the vaccine is effective won't get high and will lost interest."

Baylor neuroscientist David Eagleman has praised the idea.

He said: "It's a very clever idea. Scientists have spent the last few decades figuring out reward pathways in the brain and how drugs like cocaine hijack the system. It turns out those pathways are difficult to rewire once they've seen the drug. But the vaccine just circumvents all that."