A Vaccine for Heroin Addiction

Despite widespread efforts to reduce heroin use across the world, the drug remains a global problem. In the United States, around 2,000 people a year die of a heroin overdose. Because regular heroin users often begin injecting the drug, its use also greatly increases the risk and spread of HIV. In Iran, for example, the prevalence of HIV among injection drug users could be as high as 25% according to United Nations’ estimates. Thus, preventing the spread of heroin addiction is as pressing a problem now as it ever has been.

With this in mind, researchers have been working to develop a vaccine that would prevent heroin users from experiencing the psychoactive effects of the drug. In 2011, a group of researchers at The Scripps Research Institute in California published a report detailing the use of such a vaccine in rats. The vaccine, which raises antibodies to heroin as well as morphine and the heroin metabolite 6-acetylmorphine, showed promising results. After receiving the vaccine, rats responded with fewer lever presses to self-administer heroin. In fact, only 3 out of 7 self-administered heroin while all control rats lever-pressed for heroin.
Another group of researchers is preparing to test a heroin vaccine in human subjects. Although these findings are promising, there are still many hurdles to overcome when trying to introduce such a vaccine to a human population. The first, and perhaps most daunting, is compliance. Another obstacle is keeping a person from turning to another drug to take the place of their heroin addiction. Thus, although a heroin vaccine may offer great benefits to some heroin addicts, it cannot be viewed as a solution to the problem on its own.