Many people who smoke want to quit, but the urge to light up is often irresistible. An effective vaccine to help people kick the habit once and for all has been elusive. But now, scientists report in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry a new vaccine design that could help achieve this goal.
Smokers who want to quit have a few tools to turn to. There are nicotine patches and gum, but they're not always effective. There are drugs that target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, but these come with a risk for nasty side effects such as hallucinations, depression and severe mood swings. Vaccines that target the nicotine molecule itself would be an alternate strategy. Two candidates advanced into clinical trials recently. They ultimately failed - but not without first yielding clues as to how scientists could improve upon them. Individuals in the trials who produced the highest levels of anti-nicotine antibodies were more likely to abstain from smoking for over six months. Kim D. Janda and colleagues wanted to build on this lead.
Investigations of Enantiopure Nicotine Haptens Using an Adjuvanting Carrier in Anti-Nicotine Vaccine Development, Nicholas T. Jacob, Jonathan W. Lockner, Joel E. Schlosburg, Beverly A. Ellis, Lisa M. Eubanks, and Kim D. Janda, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b01676, published online 26 February 2016.
American Chemical Society. "Nicotine vaccine delays the drug's effects in mice." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 10 Mar. 2016. Web.