Drug overdoses remain one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., and rates are especially high for younger people. For years, researchers have been exploring whether vaccines could prevent opioid addiction and overdose death. Researchers have designed a new type of vaccine that blocks the dangerous effects of oxycodone and fentanyl.
“So if the people can get the vaccine, such as a fentanyl vaccine, this can really prevent a lot of accidental overdose,” said Chenming "Mike" Zhang, a biological systems engineering professor at Virginia Tech, and one of the authors of the study, which was published recently in the Journal of Controlled Release.
This research is in the early stages and the vaccine has only been tested on mice. Initial results show that using a special type of nanoparticle can be more effective than previously developed opioid vaccines at triggering the body’s natural immune response. The vaccine teaches cells to recognize and fight off the dangerous effects of opioids.
Yuanzhi Bian is another Virginia Tech researcher who worked on the study. He said this vaccine wouldn’t replace other medications, like Naloxone or Buprenorphine, but could be another important tool in preventing overdoses.
“I think our vaccine can be a compliment to the existing treatment methods,” Bian said. “It’s a completely different approach. We target the molecules in the circulation before they enter the brain. I think it’s a promising approach.”
The vaccine would need to be studied further before it’s ever tested on humans, and the federal government currently doesn’t appear to have a strong appetite to fund new vaccine research. If more studies do show promise, the vaccine could someday be made available to people at risk of an overdose, like those with opioid use disorder, or teenagers, who are more likely to try a drug for the first time, unaware that it may be laced with fentanyl.
