[image credit: medscape.com]
Cocaine is powerfully addictive
Solution: Injection prevents cocaine from reaching the brain
Andrew Norman, PhD, a professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience Department of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, is hoping to develop a human monoclonal antibody against cocaine that will be suitable for immunotherapy against addiction relapse.
When injected into the bloodstream, the antibody, designated h2E2, will attach to cocaine, preventing it from entering the brain and thereby limiting its behavioral effects.
Dr. Norman and his colleague W. James Ball, PhD, professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics at University of Cincinnati, have already demonstrated that a similar mouse-human antibody, 2E2, reduces cocaine's effects in a rat model of relapse.
