A team of researchers at the University of Houston announced a vaccine that could block fentanyl from entering the brain and stops users from getting high. The vaccine is being hailed as a “game changer” in the battle against the opioid overdose epidemic.
In testing on rats, the vaccine “produced significant amounts” of anti-fentanyl antibodies that clung to the deadly addictive synthetic opioid, according to a study printed in the journal Pharmaceutics.That prevented the drug “from entering the brain, allowing it to be eliminated out of the body via the kidneys,” said lead author Colin Haile of the University of Houston’s Drug Discovery Institute.“Thus, the individual will not feel the euphoric effects and can ‘get back on the wagon’ to sobriety,” said Haile, predicting it “could have a significant impact on a very serious problem plaguing society for years.”
The drug is described as a vaccine, as it will create antibodies to target fentanyl and prevent it from entering the brain.
The vaccine works by stimulating T-cells in the immune system to create antibodies which bind to fentanyl in the bloodstream.These immune proteins catch the drug as it enters the body and prevent it from spreading further and causing harm. It then gets processed in the kidney and flushed from the body.Researchers told DailyMail.com the vaccine could be used by people suffering from opioid use disorder or college students who experiment with illicit substances.
While not great news, there is a hopeful sign that opioid deaths are also declining in this country.
Preliminary data shows there were 107,600 fatalities estimated in the year to June 2022, the latest available, some 40 fewer than the tally in the 2021 calendar year.Officials heralded the early figures as ‘hopeful’ and praised the wider availability of naloxene, a drug that treats overdoses from opioids — America’s biggest killer….However, some experts said the drop was simply due to deaths returning to pre-pandemic levels. Overdoses spiked to record highs during Covid.Overdose deaths have been rising in the US since 1990s amid a flood of illicit substances crossing the border from Mexico.They surged to a record 108,000 in the year to February, after the Covid pandemic, which was blamed on the economic turmoil and social isolation caused by lockdowns and other restrictions.
Hopefully, the new vaccine will help speed up that trend.
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