Drug addiction remains a serious problem around the world, as all too many fall victim to crippling dependencies on dangerous, deadly substances.
Much effort has been made to stem the tide, but somehow, crackdowns, strict sentencing, and Nancy Reagan telling kids to just say no haven't done the trick. Weird, right?
All hope is not lost, however; a group of scientists have decided that there's only one way to beat drugs: more drugs.
I like the way they think.
Wired
It gobbles up cocaine like gaming's favorite puck-shaped hero and it contains elements of the common cold? Huh. Who knew all it took to beat cocaine was a little Pac-Man Fever?
While the vaccine was shown to be extremely effective, it's only been tested in animals so far. (Also, there is a lab somewhere getting animals high on cocaine. That's a little sad and kind of amazing at the same time.) It will take a lot more testing before this gets anywhere close to hitting the market. Still, it's a hopeful, positive step forward.
I was going to end this with some sort of a Chris Farley joke, but then I remembered he's dead and never coming back and I made myself sad.
That's all I have to say about that.
Much effort has been made to stem the tide, but somehow, crackdowns, strict sentencing, and Nancy Reagan telling kids to just say no haven't done the trick. Weird, right?
All hope is not lost, however; a group of scientists have decided that there's only one way to beat drugs: more drugs.
I like the way they think.
An anti-cocaine vaccine has been used successfully on non-human primates, bringing it one step closer to approval for use in human addiction therapy.
The vaccine (dAd5GNE) combines elements of the common cold virus with the particle GNE, which mimics cocaine. The vaccine works by preventing the dopamine high associated with taking cocaine.
"The vaccine eats up the cocaine in the blood like a little Pac-Man before it can reach the brain," said Ronald G Crystal, lead author of the study and chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
"We believe this strategy is a win-win for those individuals, among the estimated 1.4 million cocaine users in the United States, who are committed to breaking their addiction to the drug. Even if a person who receives the anti-cocaine vaccine falls off the wagon, cocaine will have no effect."
It gobbles up cocaine like gaming's favorite puck-shaped hero and it contains elements of the common cold? Huh. Who knew all it took to beat cocaine was a little Pac-Man Fever?
While the vaccine was shown to be extremely effective, it's only been tested in animals so far. (Also, there is a lab somewhere getting animals high on cocaine. That's a little sad and kind of amazing at the same time.) It will take a lot more testing before this gets anywhere close to hitting the market. Still, it's a hopeful, positive step forward.
I was going to end this with some sort of a Chris Farley joke, but then I remembered he's dead and never coming back and I made myself sad.
That's all I have to say about that.