Five Questions With: Xinyuan ‘Shawn’ Chen

Xinyuan “Shawn” Chen, of URI’s College of Pharmacy, is developing a nicotine vaccine that is designed to help people quit the smoking habit.

Xinyuan “Shawn” Chen, assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy, is developing a nicotine vaccine to block the drug’s entry into a smoker’s brain. According to Chen, who earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Nanjing University in China, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved any nicotine vaccine.

PBN: Explain the tobacco vaccine, what it does and how it works?

CHEN: The vaccine is being developed to help smokers quit tobacco smoking. It is a conjugate of nicotine, the most addictive component of a tobacco product, and a carrier, which is often a protein. My tobacco vaccine activates the body’s immune system to generate specific antibodies that isolate nicotine in the periphery of the body and block nicotine entry into the brain during smoking.

PBN: Why is your tobacco vaccine more desirable or more effective than the nicotine patches currently on the market?

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CHEN: My tobacco vaccine works differently than nicotine patches. Nicotine patches, which deliver lower amounts of nicotine to the brain than does cigarette smoking, help relieve nicotine withdrawal and craving symptoms during quitting. The nicotine patch is one type of nicotine replacement therapy currently on the market. Like other nicotine replacement therapies, it has a relatively low efficacy rate (10-20 percent) in clinical studies. The nicotine vaccine holds greater promise to induce higher abstinence rates with minimal side effects.

The tobacco vaccine used in my study is no different from other tobacco vaccines. We used a novel delivery system, which is not only needle-free and painless, but also allows the use of very potent adjuvants to safely and vigorously boost the nicotine vaccine’s efficacy. Otherwise, these adjuvants cannot be used due to their high toxicity in the body. With this different approach, we hope the nicotine vaccine will achieve significantly higher abstinence rates than rates from current nicotine patches in clinical trials, and with minimal side effects.

PBN: What is the timeline and what are the steps needed for FDA approval? Has that application process begun?

CHEN: This technology is in early development and it will require multiple years before clinical tests and FDA approval.

PBN: Have you and URI applied – or will you apply – for a patent for this vaccine?

CHEN: We are in discussions with URI’s Intellectual Property & Commercialization Office regarding a patent application for this novel delivery technology.

PBN: If the tobacco vaccine is proven effective, would it have applicability for other addictions such as alcohol or illicit drugs? Would that be a research area of interest to you?

CHEN: We expect other addiction vaccines will also benefit from this novel delivery technology. Right now, I am only focusing on nicotine vaccines, but certainly expanding this delivery technology to other vaccines is an area of interest to me.

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