Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Nov 1:158:107662.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2019.06.001. Epub 2019 Jun 4.

Development of vaccines to treat opioid use disorders and reduce incidence of overdose

Affiliations
Review

Development of vaccines to treat opioid use disorders and reduce incidence of overdose

Marco Pravetoni et al. Neuropharmacology. .

Abstract

Vaccines offer a promising therapeutic strategy to treat substance use disorders (SUD). Vaccines have shown extensive preclinical proof of selectivity, safety, and efficacy against opioids, nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, and designer drugs. Despite clinical evaluation of vaccines targeting nicotine and cocaine showing proof of concept for this approach, no vaccine for SUD has yet reached the market. This review first discusses how vaccines for treatment of opioid use disorders (OUD) and reduction of opioid-induced fatal overdoses fit within the current medication assisted treatment (MAT) portfolio, and then summarizes ongoing efforts toward translation of vaccines targeting heroin, oxycodone, fentanyl, and other opioids. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'New Vistas in Opioid Pharmacology'.

Keywords: Antibody; GMP; Opioid; Opioid epidemic; Translation; Vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

Dr. Pravetoni is the inventor of “Cytokine Signaling Immunomodulators and Methods”. U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/334, 167 filed on May 10, 2016. International Application No. PCT/US2017/031907 filed on May 10, 2017. In the past 36 months, Dr. Comer has served on advisory boards, received grant funding from, collaborated with, and/or consulted for: Alkermes, Braeburn, Cerecor, Charleston Labs, Clinilabs, Collegium, Corbus, Daiichi Sankyo, Depomed, Egalet, Endo, Epiodyne, Indivior, Go Medical, Inspirion Delivery Sciences, Intracellular Therapies, Janssen, KemPharm, Kures, Lyndra, Mallinckrodt, Nektar, Neurolixis, Newron, Opiant, Otsuka, Pfizer, Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, and Sun Pharma. She also has received honoraria from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A candidate vaccine targeting oxycodone and hydrocodone use disorders. The oxycodone-based hapten [OXY(Gly)4] is conjugated to the keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) carrier protein and adsorbed on adjuvant. Immunization with OXY-KLH reduced oxycodone-induced behavioral, pharmacological and toxic effects in mice and rats.

References

    1. UNOCD, World Drug Report 2018. 2018.
    1. The global burden of disease attributable to alcohol and drug use in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Psychiatry, 2018. 5(12): p. 987–1012. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tam T, Commentary - Building the evidence base for sustained public health response to the opioid epidemic in Canada. Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can, 2018. 38(6): p. 221–222. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Helander A, et al., Intoxications involving acrylfentanyl and other novel designer fentanyls - results from the Swedish STRIDA project. Clin Toxicol (Phila), 2017. 55(6): p. 589–599. - PubMed
    1. Salm-Reifferscheidt L, Tramadol: Africa's opioid crisis. Lancet, 2018. 391(10134): p. 1982–1983. - PubMed

Publication types