University of New Mexico scientists have received a two-year, $1 million grant to create a combined vaccine to fight addiction and potentially lessen the threat of a lethal overdose of heroin and fentanyl.
The grant was awarded by the National Institutes of Health Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Initiative, according to researcher Kathryn Frietze, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology.
“The goal is to create a combination heroin-fentanyl vaccine,” Frietze said in the UNM release. “We’re going to make variations on heroin and fentanyl that will allow for us to put those drugs on virus-like particles. Then we’ll test those vaccine candidates to see which one works the best.”
Frietze plans to attach heroin or fentanyl molecules to the surface of virus-like particles (VLPs) that have had most of their genetic material removed, making them harmless, in hopes of stimulating antibodies that bond to molecules in the blood and block them from getting to the brain so cannot trigger a "high." If achieved, this method could curve the intoxication effects and help people quit using, stay clean and prevent overdoses.
Although a "high bar," researchers hope the vaccines may also be able to prevent opioid-related drug overdoses, which have reached epidemic levels, the release said.