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Fentanyl Vaccine Delivers Promising Results in Trial
Researchers from the University of Houston have developed a fentanyl vaccine that could block the synthetic opioid’s ability to enter the brain, thus eliminating the “high” it produces—a potential game-changing development in the opioid epidemic.
Findings from a study in which the vaccine was tested on rats were published in the journal Pharmaceutics.
“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,” study lead author Colin Haile, a research associate professor of psychology at UH and the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics (TIMES), and a founding member of the UH Drug Discovery Institute, said in a news release. “Thus, the individual will not feel the euphoric effects and can ‘get back on the wagon’ to sobriety.”
The vaccine tested in the study contains an adjuvant derived from E. coli known as dmLT. The adjuvant molecule boosts the immune system’s response to vaccines, making them a critical component for efficacy.
“The anti-fentanyl antibodies were specific to fentanyl and a fentanyl derivative and did not cross-react with other opioids, such as morphine,” Haile said. “That means a vaccinated person would still be able to be treated for pain relief with other opioids.”
The vaccine was found to produce no adverse side effects. The UH researchers who conducted the study said in the university news release that they plan to soon begin manufacturing clinical-grade vaccine with human clinical trials to follow.
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