English to Italian Science Medical: Health Care vaccines for chronic drug users

The ability of cocaine to elicit a euphoric state is dependent on the rapid delivery of large quantities of the drug to the brain. TA-CD vaccine is designed to raise anti-cocaine antibodies in the circulation which then bind to cocaine entering the bloodstream following administration by the intravenous or intranasal routes or by smoking. Because the antibody-cocaine complexes are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier, high concentrations of cocaine are prevented from reaching the mid-brain and exerting its euphoric effect. The absence of the desired reward stimulus in the nucleus accumbens is expected to reduce the reinforcing psychoactive effects of taking cocaine.