A new vaccine that may totally block the effects of fentanyl is set to enter human clinical trials.
The shot, which has shown promise in animal studies, primes the immune system to recognize and attack the highly addictive opioid before it reaches the brain.
This prevents the drug from binding to receptors responsible for pain relief and euphoria. It would also avoid an overdose, which happens when the drug binds to receptors and interferes with breathing.
If successful, the vaccine will then move to further trials — but researchers say it could still be five to ten years before it reaches hospitals.
A total of 103,451 people are estimated to be dying from drug overdoses in the US every year, estimates suggest — with 70 percent of these fatalities thought to have been caused by fentanyl.
The drug is fatal in small doses — as little as three milligrams — and is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
Dr Colin Haile, a research associate professor at the University of Houston leading the shot’s development, said the team was working quickly to get the vaccine tested and out to hospitals.
‘We need to get something to market as quickly as possible to address this terrible problem,’ he said. ‘The ultimate goal is to protect people and save lives.’
Doctors are already using naloxone — brand name Narcan — to treat overdose patients, but the drug must be administered quickly to save patients.
The new vaccine would be offered to drug addicts, the researchers suggest, and would hopefully provide protection for a significant period of time — with trials in rats showing it triggered protection for at least ten weeks.
Experts have struggled to create a vaccine against fentanyl since the 1970s because — unlike with bacteria or viruses — opioids aren’t readily recognized as invaders by our immune systems.
But they have found a potential approach: By attaching a part of the drug to a harmless part of a bacteria that triggers an immune response.
For their vaccine, the researchers have attached part of fentanyl to an enterotoxin, or a chemical made by the bacteria E.coli, that has already been tested in 15 human trials and triggered nearly no side-effects.
It has already been shown to be effective in trials in rats — revealed in November 2022 — where it triggered anti-fentanyl antibodies.
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