Background: Increased death due to the opioid epidemic in the United States has necessitated the development of new strategies to treat addiction. Monoclonal antibodies and antidrug vaccines provide a tool that both aids addiction management and reduces the potential for overdose. Dual drug vaccines formulated by successive conjugation or by mixture have certain drawbacks. The current study examines an approach for combatting the dangers of fentanyl-laced heroin, by using a hapten with one epitope that has domains for both fentanyl and heroin.
Results: We evaluated a series of nine vaccines developed from chemically contiguous haptens composed of both heroin- and fentanyl-like domains. Analysis of the results obtained by SPR and ELISA revealed trends in antibody affinity and titers for heroin and fentanyl based on epitope size and linker location. In antinociception studies, the best performing vaccines offered comparable protection against heroin as our benchmark heroin vaccine, but exhibited attenuated protection against fentanyl compared to our fentanyl vaccine.
Conclusion: After thorough investigation of this strategy, we have identified key considerations for the development of a chemically contiguous heroin–fentanyl vaccine. Importantly, this is the first report of such a strategy in the opioid–drug–vaccine field.
背景:美国阿片类药物危机导致死亡人数增加,迫使开发新策略来治疗成瘾问题。单克隆抗体和抗药疫苗提供了一种既有助于成瘾管理又减少过量风险的工具。通过连续偶联或混合制备的双药物疫苗存在一定缺陷。本研究探讨了一种对抗含芬太尼的海洛因危险的方法,即使用一个具有既有芬太尼又有海洛因结构域的半抗原。
结果:我们评估了一系列由化学上相邻的半抗原组成的九种疫苗,其中包含海洛因和芬太尼样结构域。通过表面等离子共振和酶联免疫吸附分析结果,发现了基于表位大小和连接位置的海洛因和芬太尼抗体亲和力和滴度的趋势。在镇痛研究中,表现最佳的疫苗对海洛因提供了与我们基准海洛因疫苗相当的保护,但与我们的芬太尼疫苗相比,对芬太尼的保护效果有所减弱。
结论:经过对这一策略的深入研究,我们确定了开发化学上相邻的海洛因-芬太尼疫苗的关键考虑因素。重要的是,这是阿片类药物-疫苗领域首次报道这种策略。