RETRACTED ARTICLE: Recent advances for the treatment of cocaine abuse: Central nervous system immunopharmacotherapy

Abstract

A BSTRACTCocaine 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 fi lamentous 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 effi cacy 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.

Effects of cocaine hydrolase on cocaine self-administration under a PR schedule and during extended access (escalation) in rats

“…A number of creative approaches to this devastating disorder are in progress to solve these problems, including novel immunotherapies and medications (e.g., Dickerson and Janda 2005; Sofuoglu and Kosten 2005; Vocci et al 2005); however, currently, there are no approved effective treatments for cocaine abuse. One strategy under consideration is to use protein-based agents that alter the pharmacokinetics of cocaine in a favorable manner (Collins et al 2009; Gao et al 2008; Gao and Brimijoin 2009; Gorelick 2008).…”

Genetically Engineered Nanofiber-Like Viruses For Tissue Regenerating Materials

“…31 In addition, M13 phage have been used in human medical trials as tumor-targeting vehicles and in animal studies for targeted delivery of drugs and imaging agents. [32][33][34] Phage solutions were repeatedly administered to the central nervous system with little noted toxic effect or antibody titer in the peripheral blood of the animal test subjects. 33,34 These previous works suggest the safety of phage for medical material use.…”

M13 bacteriophage nanomaterials for regenerative medicine

“…"Landscape" peptide presentation on the major coat protein of the filamentous phage has been utilized to template inorganic crystals for energy and memory storage devices [60][61][62][63] and to make stimulus-responsive materials [64]. Phages have also been exploited for medical applications, such as targeted drug [65,66], gene [67], and imaging agent [68] delivery, and as a tissue engineering scaffold material [35]. Merzylak et al presented a cell signaling Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif on pVIII proteins for a tissue engineering scaffold applications [23,35].…”