When you hear about “Ice”, “Shaboo” or “Crystal Meth” you know that these are some of the most widespread synthetic drugs in the world, as well as the most dangerous. These are active ingredients all deriving from methamphetamine, a sympathomimetic that literally bombards the brain with dopamine. According to the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, there are as many as 25 million users and dependents on these substances worldwide.
A team of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute managed to obtain a positive result in the use of a vaccine against methamphetamine which (for now on guinea pigs) completely blocks its effects.
[highlight]How it works -[/highlight] The vaccine enables the immune system to attack methamphetamine molecules when they are still circulating in the bloodstream, preventing their access to the nervous system: this 'cuts' the effects on the patient's brain and removes the incentive aspect, the feeling of pleasure that stimulates extreme dependence.
Usually, methamphetamine molecules are too small to 'alert' the body and produce a response from some antibodies: this vaccine being tested, called M6, manages to bind another, larger molecule to methamphetamine, which causes the body to respond: once in circulation, the antibodies make a 'clean sweep' of both the larger molecule and those of methamphetamine.
[highlight]The test – [/highlight]On rats in the laboratory, M6 blocked both of the typical effects of the synthetic drug (loss of control over body temperature, increase in physical activity) and also eliminated any feeling of dependence.
New studies on guinea pigs are planned, and human tests are just around the corner: they could be just a few months away.
