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Fentanyl Vaccine Developed

New treatment may prevent deadly opioid from entering the brain, study reveals.

Fentanilo, drogas, muerte

(Pexels)

Published by
Juan Carlos Téllez

Topics:

A team of researchers led by the University of Houston have developed a vaccine against fentanyl. The vaccine is aimed at preventing the effects of this dangerous synthetic opioid by blocking its ability to pass throught the blood brain barrier and enter the brain and thus eliminating the 'high' produced by the drug.

This discovery, published in the scientific journal Pharmaceutics, could have a significant impact against the opioid epidemic by becoming a relapse prevention agent for users trying to withdraw from these drugs.

As the University of Houston (UH) recalls, more than 150 people die every day from overdoses of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Colin Haile, professor at UH and the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics and also a founding member of the UH Drug Discovery Institute, explained the mechanisms of this new treatment and revealed its importance:

We believe these findings could have a significant impact on a very serious problem plaguing society for years – opioid misuse. Our vaccine is able to generate anti-fentanyl antibodies that bind to the consumed fentanyl and prevent it from entering the brain, allowing it to be eliminated out of the body via the kidneys. Thus, the individual will not feel the euphoric effects and can ‘get back on the wagon’ to sobriety.

The vaccine did not cause any adverse side effects in the rats that participated in the laboratory studies. The research team plans to begin human clinical trials in a few months.

Between 2020 and 2021, deaths caused by synthetic opioids has increased by 23%. Moreover, fentanyl accounted for 77% of drug deaths among adolescents last year .

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