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Cocaine and crack addicts could soon kick their habit by having a jab that stops the drug getting them high.

The vaccine builds up the immune system so it stops the drug moving from the blood to the brain.

Professor Shankar Vallabhajosula, said: “This offers a whole new treatment paradigm for addiction.”

Cocaine users get high when the drug stimulates nerve centres in their brain that interact with dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in pleasure and reward.

The vaccine, which combines a cocaine-like molecule with the common cold virus, trains the immune system so it sends out antibodies.

They bind the cocaine in blood and prevent it from reaching the brain, stopping the high.

In the study at New York’s Cornell University, a dopamine transporter scan conducted using molecular imaging showed the part of the brain where cocaine works “lit up like fireworks” in a vaccinated brain.

The area was dimmer in an addicted brain because the drug was already interacting with dopamine transporters.

Prof Vallabhajosula told the Society of Nuclear Medicine: “The scan could also potentially be used to assess vaccines for heroin, nicotine and other addictions.”

The jab is currently being researched on animals and will need clinical trials before it is released.