Heroin Vaccine

Scientists have developed a vaccine for heroin addiction. Living in Utah especially makes one acutely aware of the opioid epidemic and its devastating effect on families and well-being. Figures reported in the article state that “the number of people who have used heroin in the past 10 years has doubled from 379000 to 828000 in 2015.” Heroin use can often be traced back to prescription opioid abuse, often times prescribed initially for pain management.

Heroin works by binding to the mu-opioid receptors in the brain which leads to euphoria.  Current treatments for heroin addiction include methadone and naloxone. Methadone is a drug that binds to the mu-opioid receptor and does not provide the euphoric high of heroin, but does prevent a heroin addicted person from going through withdrawals. Naloxone binds to the mu-opioid receptors before the biologically active form of heroin can, it is used mainly when a person overdoses.

The new vaccine that has been developed works by attaching a molecule that is similar to heroin to a hapten and a protein. A hapten is a small molecule that will elicit an immune response in the body when attached to a large molecule (protein). The researchers injected this heroin conjugate into monkeys and rats, and injected a control molecule into other monkeys and rats. After three injections, the monkeys who had received the heroin vaccine showed an antibody response to heroin, which lasted several months.  The immunized rats included in an experiment in which they were allowed to give themselves heroin, actually stopped their self-administration of the drug. All groups showed a decrease in the potency of the drug after immunization.

Treatment of people suffering from heroin addiction with mu-opioid receptor blockers has been effective, but this vaccine is different in that it shows potential to be longer acting and with less side effects. The vaccine could also be used in conjunction with other heroin treatments such as methadone because it does not bind at the mu-opioid site, and instead releases antibodies that sequester the biologically active form of heroin. A combination of both drugs could prove to be an extremely effective form of treatment for addiction.

This article interested me because it made me rethink the way I think about vaccines. I had never thought that you could vaccinate against anything but disease. 

Bremer, P.; Schlosburg, J.; Banks, M.; Steele, F.; Zhou, B.; Poklis, J.; Janda, K. Development of a Clinically Viable Heroin Vaccine, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139 (25), 8601-8611