Calixcoca is an experimental

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...

to treat

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be Smoking, smoked. Crack offers a short, intense Euphoria (emotion), high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Sub ...

addiction. It has been in development since 2015 by the

Federal University of Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais (, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a similarly collegiate system), but it means ...

(UFMG) in Brazil.

Development

The vaccine was created by a team led by Frederico Garcia, professor in the Department of Mental Health at the UFMG Faculty of Medicine. He says that the motivation for the work came from seeing the suffering of pregnant women addicted to cocaine who arrived at the university's outpatient clinic. The active ingredient of the vaccine (V4N2) was designed and synthesized by the synthesis group headed by professor Ângelo de Fátima, from the Department of Chemistry at UFMG. During the pre-clinical phase, the investment was made by the

National Council for Scientific and Technological Development The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, , earlier ) is a government agency under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Brazilian federal government. The council is dedicated to the promotion of scientific ...

(CNPq) and the Minas Gerais Research Support Foundation (Fapemig). On June 1, 2023, the city of São Paulo announced the initial investment of R$4 million in accelerating vaccine research.

Vaccine

Calixcoca, unlike other anti-cocaine vaccines, is not

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

-based. The material that forms the basis of the vaccine is the V4N2 molecule. This molecule stimulates the immune system to produce

antibodies An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that caus ...

that bind to cocaine molecules in the blood. Cocaine molecules that are bound to these antibodies are too large to pass the blood-brain barrier and thus cannot reach the brain and cannot cause psychological effects in the user.

Preclinical studies

Pre-clinical studies carried out with

mice A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

showed the production of anti-cocaine

in the animals' organism. In addition to making the effects of the drug imperceptible to the mice, the vaccine also reduced the number of

spontaneous abortions Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion, is an end to pregnancy resulting in the loss and expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the womb before it can survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is ...

, and the pups were born healthier and with greater resistance to the drug.

Awards

Calixcoca was selected as one of the finalists in the Euro Health Innovation Award (2023), winning the award in October of that year.

References

{{Reflist Brazilian inventions Vaccines against drugs Federal University of Minas Gerais Cocaine