Word: cd
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...music industry, hoping to find another revenue source that doesn't easily lend itself to illegal downloads, has happily jumped on the bandwagon. Contemporary artists like the Killers and Ryan Adams have begun issuing their new releases on vinyl in addition to the CD and MP3 formats. As an extra lure, many labels are including coupons for free audio downloads with their vinyl albums so that Generation Y music fans can get the best of both worlds: high-quality sound at home and iPod portability for the road. Also, vinyl's different shapes (hearts, triangles) and eye-catching designs (bright...
While most foreign substances in the body trigger an immune-system defense, many illegal drugs, like cocaine, fail to do so because their molecules are too small; they slip into the brain unnoticed and unchallenged. But by attaching them to larger proteins - in the case of TA-CD, an inactivated cholera protein that has been widely tested and is unlikely to cause side effects, according to researchers - the immune system is prompted to create antibodies to both the larger protein and the piggybacked drug. The next time the user takes cocaine by itself, the body mounts an automatic defense: Antibodies...
...CD has been over a decade in the making, but the science behind it goes back much further. In the 1950s, researchers developed a vaccine to block fatal overdoses of the heart drug digitalis. In the 1970s University of Chicago researchers prompted monkeys to develop antibodies to heroin by attaching molecules of the drug to a protein from cow's blood. It was this model on which Kosten, who became interested in solving addiction as a medical student at Cornell, based TA-CD. Using the cholera bacterium as a vector is a crucial tweak in design; it allows the cocaine...
...CD is currently designed as a therapeutic drug, however, not a preventive, says Kosten. For people struggling to overcome addiction or avoid relapse, the vaccine can reduce the rate of uptake of cocaine and slow the high. Even still, determined users can thwart the vaccine by taking more cocaine than their immune response can handle. The regimen also requires commitment, involving as many as five shots in three months, plus boosters every two months thereafter. "You have to want to quit. The addict has to want to stop" for the vaccine to work, says NIDA's Vocci...
...complicated as the puzzle of addiction may be, Kosten believes that the 21st-century war against drug abuse can be waged as successfully as last century's global fight against infectious disease. It may not be a magic pill, but Kosten hopes the TA-CD vaccine will be the first step along the road to recovery for many addicts...