Nowadays new cheap synthetic drugs are available that are 50 – 1000 times more potent than morphine or heroin. More often the molecules are combined to increase the potency. Since the user is usually unaware of these facts, they end up overdosing themselves. As little as 2 milligrams can be lethal sometimes. Recently the researchers in the USA have developed a vaccination program to curb the opioid crisis. The vaccine works by exposing the immune system to heroin-conjugate to produce antibodies against heroin thereby blocking it from crossing the blood-brain barrier. Moreover, the vaccine also prevents a hypoventilation induced death that is related to overdosing.
This vaccination effect has already been successfully tried in primates and now the researchers are looking for a first human trial. Source: Bremer et al, Development of a Clinically Viable Heroin Vaccine. J. Am. Chem. Soc.…
