Vaccines have now been developed to treat opioid abuse and prevent fatal overdoses, finds a new study. Heroin and oxycodone vaccines were found to be effective in blocking heroin and oxycodone distribution in the brain.

‘Opioid vaccines have shown promising pre-clinical efficacy, both heroin and oxycodone vaccines effectively blocked heroin and oxycodone distribution to the brain.’

The research team's pre-clinical studies were published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Scientific Reports, and PLOS ONE. The results support future clinical testing of these vaccines in human patients. Key findings include:




- heroin and oxycodone vaccines are highly immunogenic in rodents;
- heroin and oxycodone vaccines are highly effective and selective at reducing opioid distribution to brain and the subsequent behavioral effects of these targeted opioids
- oxycodone vaccine may be more effective in humans if oxycodone is administered orally;
- novel immunomodulators may offer a solution for improving vaccine efficacy.
Vaccination prevents addiction-relevant behaviors, including opioid self-administration that models human abuse patterns. These vaccines appear to be safe and may help in preventing opioid-induced respiratory depression, a hallmark of an opioid fatal overdose.
Importantly, vaccination does not prevent the use of currently approved addiction treatment medications such as methadone, naltrexone, buprenorphine, and naloxone.
The research team is also working on biologics against other opioid targets, such as fentanyl, and developing more effective next-generation vaccine formulations.
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Source-Eurekalert