Cody Wenthur, PharmD, PhD

Research Interests

The Wenthur laboratory is currently exploring how the immune system can alter the function of brain reward systems, as a means to develop new therapeutics for addiction and associated psychiatric illnesses. Within this overall effort, there are multiple interconnected projects crafted to support rapid translation of these findings and improve human health. These projects include the development of novel bioconjugate vaccines and monoclonal antibodies that can block the effects of abused synthetic and naturally-derived drugs, the use of antibody-mediated techniques to understand how multiple compounds and neurochemical systems interact to support maladaptive learning during chronic stress in mammalian systems, and the identification of immune-mediated biomarkers of ongoing drug abuse in humans, especially prescription opioids, and to understand how these alterations in immune function affect the efficacy of these abused drugs.

Honors & Awards

Sept 2017 Jared F Purton Memorial Award – TSRI Society of Fellows

Aug 2016 – July 2018 NIDA F32 Fellowship in Chemical Biology

Sept 2013 – July 2017 NIH Loan Repayment Program – NIDA Clinical Research Award

June 2011 – July 2015 NIGMS T32 Fellowship in Pharmacology

April 2011 Merck Award for Achievement in Pharmaceutical Research

May 2008 – April 2009 John B Data Fellowship

Selected Publications

• Wenthur CJ, Zhao B, Janda KD. Vaccine-driven pharmacologic dissection and mitigation of fenethylline psychoactivity. Nature, 548; (7668):476-479. 2017
• Wenthur CJ, Cai X, Ellis BA, Janda KD. Augmenting the efficacy of anti-cocaine catalytic antibodies through chimeric hapten design and combinatorial vaccination. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 27; (16):3666-3668. 2017
• Wenthur CJ. Classics in chemical neuroscience: Methylphenidate. ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 7; (8):1030-40. 2016.
• Walker AG, Wenthur CJ, Xiang Z, Rook JM, Emmitte KA, Lindsley CW, Conn PJ. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 (mGlu3) activation is required for group II mGlu long-term depression in the medial prefrontal cortex and fear extinction learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 112; (4):1196-201. 2015.
• Wenthur CJ, Gentry PR, Mathews TP, Lindsley CW. Drugs for allosteric sites on receptors. Annual Reviews in Pharmacology and Toxicology. 54: 165-84. 2014.
• Wenthur CJ, Morrison R, Felts AS, Smith KA, Engers JL, Byers FW, Daniels JS, Emmitte KA, Conn PJ, Lindsley CW. Discovery of (R)-(2-fluoro-4-((-4-methoxyphenyl)ethynyl)phenyl) (3-hydroxypiperidin-1-yl)methanone (ML337), an mGlu3 selective and CNS penetrant negative allosteric modulator (NAM). Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 56; (12):5208-12. 2013.
• Wenthur CJ, Rodriguez GJ, Kuntz CP, Barker EL. Conformational flexibility of transmembrane helix VII of the human serotonin transporter impacts ion dependence and transport. Biochemical Pharmacology 80; (9):1418-426. 2010.