Skin Vaccination Against Nicotine Addiction

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States and the majority of smokers are unable to quit readily due to nicotine addiction. Currently effective treatments against nicotine addiction are still lacking. Nicotine vaccine evolves as a novel treatment against nicotine addiction and has been actively pursued in the 5–10 years. Despite promising data in preclinical and early-phase clinical trials, efficacy of nicotine vaccine is far from satisfying in several recent clinical trials. One of the major hurdles is the relatively low and highly variable anti-nicotine antibodies generated in smokers. Improving nicotine vaccine immunogenicity is promising to increase the success rate of nicotine vaccines in the clinics. This chapter introduces highly immunogenic skin vaccination route in combination with potent adjuvants to significantly improve nicotine vaccine immunogenicity. In more detail, this chapter focuses on introducing novel intradermal and lesion-free skin delivery technologies that hold great promise for improved nicotine vaccine delivery and adjuvantation. Novel skin delivery technologies can also be conveniently combined with other strategies, like improved nicotine hapten and vaccine design, to profoundly improve nicotine vaccine immunogenicity.