posted on 2016-02-26, 00:00authored byNicholas T. Jacob, Jonathan
W. Lockner, Joel E. Schlosburg, Beverly A. Ellis, Lisa M. Eubanks, Kim D. Janda
Despite
efforts to produce suitable smoking cessation aids, addiction to nicotine
continues to carry a substantive risk of recidivism. An attractive
alternative to current therapies is the pharmacokinetic strategy of
antinicotine vaccination. A major hurdle in the development of the
strategy has been to elicit a sufficiently high antibody concentration
to curb nicotine distribution to the brain. Herein, we detail investigations
into a new hapten design, which was able to elicit an antibody response
of significantly higher specificity for nicotine. We also explore
the use of a mutant flagellin carrier protein with adjuvanting properties.
These studies underlie the feasibility of improvement in antinicotine
vaccine formulations to move toward clinical efficacy.