Inoculations are commonly used to prevent infectious diseases like COVID-19, but they also may have the potential to treat substance use disorders.
A team of scientists from the University of Minnesota and Columbia University are studying an oxycodone vaccine that they hope can be used to treat opioid use disorders.
…
Current treatment approaches include a combination of medication and counseling and behavioral therapies. A vaccine may not just help treat addiction, but it also may prevent it from happening in the first place, advocates say.
“We have good medications to treat opioid use disorder, but about half of the people who use these medications relapse after about six months,” said Sandra Comer, a Columbia University neurobiology professor and the trial’s principal investigator.
“A vaccine that lasts for several months, given in combination with any of these medications, could help many more people beat their addiction.”
The oxycodone vaccine specifically stimulates the immune system’s production of antibodies that prevent the drug from entering the brain and creating the high users crave.
Because it only targets oxycodone, researchers say the vaccine won’t interfere with any Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs such as methadone, buprenorphone, naltrexone and naloxone.
