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
