Futuristic Approaches to Disarming Nicotine Addiction: A Narrative Review of Emerging Therapies
Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry April 6, 2026 Chetan Vinay Deshmukh, Vibhuti Dilip Mistry, Prakash Maruti Kasbe et al.
Nicotine addiction remains a major global health problem, and existing treatments have limited long-term success because nicotine strongly alters brain reward pathways. This narrative review examines emerging experimental approaches, including nicotine vaccines, CRISPR gene editing, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and brain-computer interfaces, that aim to counteract nicotine's effects or rewire addiction-related brain circuits. The authors argue that these strategies, though still experimental, could make nicotine both physiologically ineffective and psychologically irrelevant by targeting dopaminergic and serotonergic systems.