Benowitz Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2024

Clinical Pharmacology of Nicotine Enantiomers

Summary/Abstract Recently a number of electronic cigarettes (EC) brands have claimed to use liquids that are “tobacco-free”, meaning they contain “synthetic” nicotine. Such products are not currently subject to existing FDA tobacco control regulations and might be marketed to youth and others as cleaner and less harmful than EC that contain nicotine derived from tobacco. E-cigarette manufacturers may use synthetic nicotine as a way to avoid ongoing FDA regulatory processes for ECs. Nicotine is a chiral compound with one asymmetric carbon atom and can exist as two mirror image forms termed enantiomers or optical isomers, the levorotatory (S)-isomer and the dextrorotatory (R)-isomer. While…

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