Efficient Syntheses of Cocaine Vaccines and Their in Vivo Evaluation

Though cocaine abuse and addiction continue to have serious implications for health and society, no FDA-approved interventions have been developed. Anticocaine conjugate vaccines offer an attractive opportunity for addiction treatment; however, vaccines have thus far failed in clinical trials. As a result, anticocaine vaccines must be further optimized to achieve clinical translation. Herein, we report a study on the relationship between vaccine efficacy and hapten stability toward hydrolysis. Two haptens developed by our laboratory, GND and GNE, were conjugated to tetanus toxoid (TT) and formulated with alum and cytosine-guanine oligodeoxynucleotide 1826 (CpG ODN 1826) adjuvants, the optimal formulation in anticocaine vaccine design. GND, a diamide, is more hydrolytically stable than GNE, a monoamide, toward butyrylcholinesterases. Ultimately, both vaccines induced antibodies with high affinity for cocaine. In hyperlocomotion testing, GND-TT and GNE-TT vaccinated mice exhibited a robust blockade of cocaine's stimulatory effects at all tested doses. Overall, antibodies raised against both haptens were highly effective in protecting mice from cocaine-induced psychostimulation.