One of the world`s leading bioethics and public policy experts from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at The University of Queensland has cautioned against using a potential `nicotine vaccine` to prevent smoking in teenagers saying that it should only be considered after extensive testing on adults smokers.
Director of the IMB`s Office of Public Policy and Ethics Professor Wayne Hall said a `nicotine vaccine` which produces antibodies to nicotine that prevent it from crossing the blood brain barrier, could prove effective in preventing ex-smokers from relapsing and help current smokers quit.
"Studies in rats indicate that a `nicotine vaccine` is very successful at preventing rats relapsing to nicotine self-administration and this is the most promising application for a human vaccination," Professor Hall said.
"A safe and effective human vaccine would potentially have fewer side-effects and be easier to use than existing `quit smoking` therapies, and could also be used in combination with some of these therapies.
"Using a `nicotine vaccine` to prevent teenage children from smoking is contentious because adolescents are not able to give consent and would be vaccinated at the request of their parents, and the long term preventive use of a vaccine requires stronger evidence of safety and efficacy that the shorter tem use of a vaccine to reduce smoking relapse in adults.
"Additional practical restrictions include the likely need for booster shots for a vaccine , the substantial costs of universal vaccination and the modest success rate in preventing smoking.
"A nicotine vaccine could be circumvented by smoking larger doses of nicotine. This might encourage some adolescents who had been vaccinated to smoke more cigarettes."
"All these challenges suggest that a `nicotine vaccine` requires thoughtful implementation in adults and very careful evaluation of preventative use in adolescents. Any trials of this use should only be conducted, if at all, after extensive experience in its use with adults."
Smoking, maintained by nicotine addiction, is recognised as the single greatest preventable cause of death and disability in Australia, and represents a $2.2 billion burden on the community in Queensland alone.
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