Need Help To Quit Smoking? - Nanotechnology Could Help, Says Arizona State University

Everyone knows that one person in office or at the university who gets restless when the quick smoke break is denied. However hard they try, they just can't quit smoking. So, for all those who need help in quitting that hazardous habit, Yung Chang and her colleagues at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have launched an ambitious new project designed to attack nicotine dependence in a totally novel manner. After having received $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, their research is aimed at designing a vaccine conferring immunity to nicotine, using nanoscale structures assembled from DNA.

The working of vaccines depends on teaching the body's immune system to recognize and attack the offending substance, clearing it from the body before it can do any damage. For the best response, the target molecule must be properly displayed alongside immune system jump-starters that elicit an immediate response. By arranging these components on a nano-sized DNA scaffold that self-assembles into a precise 3D structure, the research team has created a vaccine delivery molecule that more closely mimics the natural components of the immune system.


"The DNA nanostructure enables rational design and construction of synthetic vaccines, because of its precision control over the placement of various antigenic components," Chang says. "This approach may offer a new strategy to improve the efficacy of many different vaccines." The researchers hope to identify promising candidates for a new nicotine vaccine and advance them toward Investigational New Drug submission. The researchers emphasize that if their DNA nanotechnology approach proves successful, it could plausibly be applied to the development of future vaccines against any target of interest, including other drugs of abuse, infectious agents or tumor antigens, thereby opening an entirely new chapter in vaccine development