NIDA Hopeful That Vaccines Can Fight Addiction

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has announced that it is funding the innovative work of two researchers who are developing vaccines they hope can combat two troubling and stubborn addictions—those to methamphetamine and nicotine. The recipients of NIDA's second Avant-Garde Awards for Innovative Medication Development Research are Thomas Kosten, M.D., of Baylor College of Medicine, who heads a research team that hopes to have a methamphetamine vaccine ready for clinical trials within five years, and Peter Burhkard, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut, who is developing a peptide nonoparticle nicotine vaccine that will be administered intranasally.

NIDA Director Nora Volkow, M.D., said the two researchers represent the program's goal "to support investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on the treatment of drug abuse.”

Cocaine addiction is also the target of vaccine research. Read about developments in this effort in Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/5/20.2.full. Also, learn more about the latest in treating addictions in the upcoming American Psychiatric Publishing book, Cocaine and Methamphetamine Dependence: Advances in Treatment. Information on this book is posted at www.appi.org/SearchCenter/Pages/SearchDetail.aspx?ItemId=62407.

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