By Fentanyl Vaccine Could Save Thousands of Lives? Recent Animals study It was published in the magazine pharmacy showed that a fentanyl vaccine was able to block the drug from entering the brain of rats. A fentanyl vaccine would therefore be a worthy candidate for human studies and ultimately be released to the public as potentially life-saving.
Researchers gave rats three doses of vaccine or immunization at three-week intervals, and another group of rats received a placebo. To determine whether the drug was working, they tested the pain response by heating the tails of immunized rats for up to 10 seconds and determining how long it took to pull them away.
Vaccination significantly reduced fentanyl entry into the brain, and anti-fentanyl antibodies targeted fentanyl without cross-reactivity with other opioids.
“We believe these findings have the potential to have major implications for a very serious problem that has plagued society for years: opioid misuse,” said Colin Heil, lead author of the study. says Said News from the University of Houston (UH). “Our vaccine produces anti-fentanyl antibodies that bind to the consumed fentanyl, preventing it from entering the brain and allowing it to exit the body through the kidneys. Thus, individuals feel a euphoric effect. and you can go back to drinking.”
Haile is 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.
“Anti-fentanyl antibodies were specific to fentanyl and fentanyl derivatives and did not cross-react with other opioids such as morphine. You can,” said Haile.
Meanwhile, overdoses of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, kill more than 150 people every day. As little as two milligrams of fentanyl, or two grains of rice, can be lethal, depending on your size.
“These preclinical results demonstrate efficacy in neutralization. [fentanyl]The efficacy of suffix warrants its further development as a potential treatment for OUD and overdose in humans,” the researchers wrote in their study. “Two components of our formulation (CRM and dmLT) have either been included in other vaccines already on the market or have been tested in multiple clinical trials and have been shown to be safe and effective. In addition, the effective doses of dmLT used in human clinical trials are comparable to those used in this study. low and sufficient resistance[fentanyl] Due to the low antibody levels, no adverse events are expected when this vaccine is tested in humans. ”
The vaccine caused no observed adverse side effects in immunized rats.
Researchers plan to begin manufacturing a clinical-grade vaccine within the next few months, with human trials planned soon.
Efforts are being made to reduce the lethality of fentanyl in America. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) released the results of its extensive drug campaign last September. The data spanned from May to September, he took over 10 million fentanyl pills, and they said he had 36 million lethal doses of the drug.
The DEA says fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing the country. “In 2021, a record number of Americans (107,622) will die from drug addiction or overdose,” he reads the DEA release. “Sixty-six percent of these deaths can be attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.”
