One big question facing the development of a fentanyl vaccine or antibody treatment is whether a large enough dose of the drug could skirt by antibodies, making its way to the brain. Sharon Levy, an addiction medicine specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital who has worked on fentanyl vaccines and is one of ARMR’s scientific advisers, says it’s possible. “There’s only going to be so many antibodies,” she says.
In addiction treatment, Levy says there’s always a risk of patients trying to override the effects of a prescribed opioid-blocking medication by taking a high dose of an opioid—which is highly dangerous—but she says this is rare.
Levy and her colleagues have been conducting surveys on the acceptability of a fentanyl vaccine. She thinks a major target group would be teenagers and young adults who may be accidentally exposed to fentanyl when taking street drugs. Individuals with an opioid use disorder who are in active treatment would also be good candidates for vaccination.
“Overall, our experience has been that people would be interested in this,” she says.
Mike Selick, director of capacity building and community mobilization for the National Harm Reduction Coalition, worries that a fentanyl vaccine could block the effects of other opioids, leaving vaccinated individuals with few options for pain medications if they ever needed them.
In animal studies, the University of Houston team found no cross-reactivity with other common opioid-based common pain and addiction treatment medications, such as buprenorphine, methadone, morphine, or oxycodone. But there’s a downside to a lack of cross-reactivity. It means that people could still overdose on other types of opioids—and get high from them.
Gage knows that a fentanyl vaccine isn’t a perfect solution. Even if it works, it won’t end the opioid epidemic or cure opioid addiction. It won’t stop people from seeking out drugs entirely. But it could be another tool for helping to prevent overdose deaths.
“What we’re trying to do is put some innovation and new newfound technology behind this problem,” he says “because I think we’re in desperate need of it.”
This story originally appeared on WIRED.com.