Heroin abuse is a growing problem in the US. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 15,446 Americans died from heroin overdose between 2000 and 2016; since then, mortality rates are increasing. Heroin is a byproduct of the opioid epidemic because when people abusing prescription drugs lose access to legal opiates, they turn to more potent street drugs like heroin; studies show that opioid pain reliever users are 40 times more likely to abuse heroin.
Researchers have come up with a fascinating and unique approach to this abuse and overdose that has great potential - heroin vaccine.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have achieved a major milestone toward designing a safe and effective vaccine to both treat heroin addiction and block lethal overdose of the drug. Their research, published today in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, shows how a new anti-heroin formulation that is safe in animal models remains stable at room temperature for at least 30 days. As a result, the vaccine is nearly ready for human testing.
Principle and Working of Heroin Vaccine
The idea was first hatched in 2013 by chemist Kim Janda, Ph.D, who made the first formulation that was shown to be effective and safe in both rodent and non-human primate models.
The vaccine trains the immune system antibodies to recognize and bind to heroin molecules, and therefore, prevent them from crossing the blood-brain barrier. In such a scenario, the person doesn’t achieve a ‘high’. Researchers believe that blocking the drug from getting to the reward and pleasure centers of the brain, will help eliminate the motivation for many recovering addicts to relapse into drug use.
It was observed in rodent models that the heroin molecule does not naturally prompt an antibody response. The researchers, hence, attach it to a carrier protein called tetanus toxoid (TT) that alerts the immune system to start making antibodies. An adjuvant (usually alum) is also added to the vaccine, which boosts the immune response and makes it more effective. The discovery that alum worked best as an adjuvant was especially significant since alum is one of the few adjuvants used in vaccines already approved by the U.S. FDA. The researchers also found that there was no difference in how well it worked between the liquid and powder versions of this formulation.
Opioid overdose causes death by compromising the CNS and stopping breathing. This new vaccine therapy mitigates that effect. If approved, it may act as internal reinforcement for patients who are seeking help for drug addiction.
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