Scientists Are Testing a Vaccine to Treat Opioid Addiction

Researchers are looking at other ways to fight the epidemic, such as a vaccine to treat addiction.

Scientists are working on a vaccine that targets addiction. Volunteers with substance abuse disorders are being tested on experimental drugs.
The vaccine prevents the pleasure centers of the brain from being stimulated by the opiate. Users are less likely to use a drug if they don't feel better after taking it.
The professor of neurobiology at Columbia University said that the vaccine would cause the body to produce an immunity to a particular chemical structure. If a person uses a drug like oxycodone, the antibody will bind to the molecule and it won't allow it to get into the brain.
Comer and Pravetoni hope that the drug will help cut down on the rate of relapses from medically-assisted addiction treatments.
The relapse rate for such treatments is 50 percent.

She told CBS that if they relapsed, the vaccine would provide some level of protection against overdose. It could be an opportunity for us to re-engage them in treatment.

The team hopes to use the research to develop treatments for other drugs.
The experimental vaccine does offer some hope as the US continues to reckon with a grim opioid crisis. More than a half a million Americans have died from drug overdoses in the past two decades, with 73 percent of those deaths caused by opioids according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is still in its early stages, but a vaccine that could help treat addictions while cutting overdoses down would be game changing.
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