UCLA researchers are seeking smokers between the ages of 18 and 65 for a national study using an experimental vaccine to help them quit smoking.

“Very few smokers successfully quit so new methods, beyond the patch and nicotine gum, are truly needed,” said Dr. Donald Tashkin, principal investigator and professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The investigational vaccine produces antibodies that bind to nicotine. The resulting molecule is too large to reach the brain and gradually reduces the satisfaction smokers receive from their cigarettes.

To qualify for the yearlong study, volunteers must be in general good health and want to quit. Participants who pass an initial screening visit will be assigned at random to receive either the investigational vaccine called NicVAX or a placebo (inactive substance). Volunteers will receive six injections over the course of the study.

Volunteers will keep an electronic diary, receive behavioral counseling sessions to help them quit, and have regular physical exams including blood tests and carbon monoxide testing, which involves blowing into a tube.

Side effects to the vaccine or placebo injection were similar and included fever, muscle aches, tiredness, headache, nausea or vomiting, which usually resolve within several days following the injection. In addition, there may be temporary discomfort at the site of the injection.

Helping smokers quit is the single most effective disease prevention strategy. Nationwide more than 430,000 Americans die each year of smoking-related diseases, including heart disease, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer.

The study is funded by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, the company that makes NicVAX. For more information, call (310) 825-3806.