A potential solution to combat heroin addiction, prescription drug addiction and the rapid increase in overdose deaths is treating drug addiction with a vaccine.
According to Dr. William Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a vaccine has already undergone tests in animal subjects. The vaccine would latch onto the drugs used by producing an antibody response. Because the drugs are large molecules they will not be able to cross the blood-brain barrier.
A multivalent "anti-addiction" conjugate vaccine that produces drug-specific antibodies has already been developed at the University of Minnesota.
According to Medill Reports Chicago, Compton focused on the heroin addiction and prescription drug epidemic on Saturday, at a panel on the "Neuroscience Clues to the Chemistry of Mood Disorders and Addictions." Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington D.C., he explained that the vaccine might be our best solution.
According to Dr. Compton, in the United States alone every year there are 200 million prescriptions written for opioids. These prescriptions are usually received for pain, but many remain unused and get in the hands of friends and family.
If a patient becomes addicted to prescription drugs, heroin might be the next logical next step on the journey to addiction since prescription drugs are chemically similar to heroin. More than 50,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the year 2014, including 10,000 who died of heroin overdose and 19,000 who died of prescription drug overdoses. Compton said that his has a population impact and there is a decreased longevity for middle-aged non-Hispanic whites.
Dr. Compton explained that "science can help in many ways." For example, if drugs are stopped to cross through the blood-brain barrier from the circulatory system into the brain, the "intoxication reinforcement" would be stopped as well. And addicts are less likely to abuse drugs if they can't get "high" from them.
The anti-drug vaccine would be part of a three-part strategy fighting the drug addiction epidemic. The strategy would include preventing addiction, reversing drug overdoses and helping addicts.
