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An anti-nicotine vaccine will be tested on 400 people in the Nordic countries over the next year aimed at helping smokers kick the habit, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden said on Monday.
People taking part in the study -- heavy smokers who would like to quit -- would be given counselling before they stop smoking and would be given a drug to help them quit.

They will then receive one injection a month for four months. Half of the participants will be given the vaccine and the other half a placebo.
They will be followed for a year to see whether they begin to smoke again, Wikingsson said.

The vaccine, called Niccine, has been developed over the course of 10 years by Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute, under the guidance of professor Torgny Svensson.
Niccine is supposed to help the immune system build antibodies against nicotine.
If a person who has taken the vaccine smokes a cigarette, the antibodies jump into action, latching onto the incoming nicotine and preventing it from reaching the reward system in the brain -- thereby stopping the smoker from getting the "kick" that makes smoking addictive.