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Center for Translational Neuroscience
Distinguished Speaker Series
Symposium on Drug Abuse
Rayford Auditorium, Biomed II Bldg., 12 noon
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Clinical Translational Research
Anti-addiction Medications
Thomas Kosten MD
Waggoner Chair & Professor of Psychiatry,
Pharmacology & Neuroscience
Baylor College of Medicine
Clinical Translational Research is developing new pharmacogenetic,
immunotherapy and genetic engineering tools for improving anti-addiction
medications. Pharmacogenetics has become useful for treatment of alcoholism
and cocaine. Alcoholism pharmacotherapy with Naltrexone has been much
improved based on selecting patients who have a functional polymorphism in the
OPRM1 gene that codes for the mu opiate receptor. Cocaine pharmacotherapy
with Disulfiram has been improved based on selecting patients who have a
regulatory polymorphism in the DBH gene that codes for the enzyme dopamine
beta hydroxylase (DBH). Immunotherapies for addictions have included
developments in both vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. UAMS researcher
Michael Owens has led the field in monoclonals for various addictions. Vaccines
have been developed for cocaine, nicotine, opiates and methamphetamine, and this
talk will focus on the human studies with a cocaine vaccine. The cocaine vaccine
has most recently been improved through genetic engineering of the enzyme
cholinesterase that metabolizes cocaine. The activity of cholinesterase has been
increased 50,000 fold, and this new enzyme’s DNA transfected into human white
blood cells for sustained release and activity.