Recent advances for the treatment of cocaine abuse: central nervous system immunopharmacotherapy

Cocaine addiction continues to be a major health and societal problem in spite of governmental efforts devoted toward educating the public of the dangers of illicit drug use. A variety of pharmacotherapies and psychosocial programs have been proposed in an effort to provide a method for alleviation of the physical and psychological symptoms of cocaine abuse. Unfortunately, these methods have been met with limited success, illustrating a critical need for new effective approaches for the treatment of cocaine addiction. Recently an alternative cocaine abuse treatment strategy was proposed using intranasal administration of an engineered filamentous bacteriophage displaying cocaine-sequestering antibodies on its surface. These phage particles are an effective vector for CNS penetration and are capable of binding cocaine, thereby blocking its behavioral effects in a rodent model. The convergence of phage display and immunopharmacotherapy has allowed for an investigation of the efficacy of protein-based therapeutics acting within the CNS on the effects of cocaine in animal models and has uncovered a new tool in the battle against cocaine addiction.