Novel technologies in detection, treatment and prevention of substance use disorders

Abstract

Substance use disorders are a widely recognized problem, which affects various levels of communities and influenced the world socioeconomically. Its source is deeply embedded in the global population. In order to fight against such an adversary, governments have spared no efforts in implementing substance abuse treatment centers and funding research to develop treatments and prevention procedures. In this review, we will discuss the use of immunological-based treatments and detection kit technologies. We will be detailing the steps followed to produce performant antibodies (antigens, carriers, and adjuvants) focusing on cocaine and methamphetamine as examples. Furthermore, part of this review is dedicated to substance use detection. Owing to novel technologies such as bio-functional polymeric surfaces and biosensors manufacturing, detection has become a more convenient method with the fast and on-site developed devices. Commercially available devices are able to test substance use disorders in urine, saliva, hair, and sweat. This improvement has had a tremendous impact on the prevention of driving under influence and other illicit behaviors. Lastly, substance abuse became a major issue involving the cooperation of experts on all levels to devise better treatment programs and prevent abuse-based accidents, injury and death.

Keywords: Biosensors; Cocaine/methamphetamine; Drug detection; Immunotherapy; Substance use disorder.

Fig. 1

The therapeutic approach to vaccines. Mechanism of action of substance abuse in the presence or absence of vaccines.

Fig. 2

Overview of the most common immunoassays used in substance use analysis. (A) ELISA principle. (B) Enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT). A substance-containing sample is put into competition with a labeled analog (with an enzyme such as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase). The enzyme becomes inactive if the analog binds to the Ab. Thus, the signal generated from the enzymatic activity is lowered and is directly proportional to the substance concentration. (C) Fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) is also based on competition in addition to the polarized fluorescence-labeling signal. The principle is based on the Brownianmotion generate. The free labeled-analogs affect the entering polarized light because of their rapid rotation. In contrast, fluorescent analogs bound to Abs become larger and a slow rotation is observed. Consequently, the polarized light is not affected, and the signal intensity is inversely proportional to substance concentration. Reproduced from Ref. [71] with permission under CC-BY license. © 2015 Sanavio and Krol. Frontiers Publishing.

Fig. 3

UPT lateral flow model. This detection format is used generally in strip manufacturing and is able to provide a dozen different test lines. Reproduced from Ref. [49] © 2001 Elsevier.