Fentanyl vaccines show promise amid U.S. overdose crisis

Over 100,000 people died in the United States last year due to drug overdoses. A grim contributor is the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The substance is one hundred times stronger than morphine. Americans are working intensively on vaccines against fentanyl.

It is estimated that in 2023, in the United States, 107,543 people died due to drug overdoses - according to "The Guardian." The number is shocking, yet this is the first yearly decline since 2018. In 2023, overdoses fell by 3 percent. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), fentanyl is responsible for 74,000 deaths, and an additional 36,000 deaths were caused by methamphetamine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that since 2001, over a million people have died due to drug overdoses.

Despite the slight decline, it is the third consecutive year that the United States has recorded over 100,000 deaths annually - reports PAP, citing "The Washington Post." Since 2021, the federal administration has invested billions of dollars in making it easier for Americans to access proven therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine treatment, and naloxone - a drug used after fentanyl overdoses. Americans are also working on a vaccine against synthetic opioids.

Two promising candidates for vaccines against fentanyl may enter clinical trials later this year, said Dr. Hab. Piotr Rzymski, professor at the Poznań University of Medical Sciences, to PAP. Both have successfully passed preclinical tests on animals, leading to high titers of antibodies against this opioid, and there is a chance that in the coming months, they will start being tested on humans, added the specialist.

Vaccines helping treat addiction to chemical substances are a little-known concept, emphasized by Prof. Rzymski. - The basis of the idea of anti-drug vaccines is the use of immune mechanisms that generally neutralize pathogens. However, in this case, it is about directing the action of this system to neutralize chemical substances, not viruses or bacteria - he explained.

- The trick is to induce the body to produce antibodies that will recognize the drug, then bind to it and thus prevent it from crossing the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system, where it usually produces its euphoric effects - added Prof. Piotr Rzymski.

In March, the weekly "Economist" wrote that every 14 months, more Americans die from fentanyl addiction than have died in all the wars the United States has fought since 1945.

It is - as explained by The British Weekly - a dream substance for drug dealers because its production does not require extensive cultivation of plants such as marijuana or coca, tablet production can take place in small, "home-based" and difficult-to-detect laboratories, and smuggling and transport are exceptionally easy.

Chemical substances that are precursors to fentanyl are produced on a large scale in China, where the pharmaceutical industry is very developed, and in India, where it is not strictly controlled. Drug cartels from Mexico import these substances and produce fentanyl based on them in improvised laboratories. It is then sent to the USA, with most of this transport carried through legal export routes.