A Highly Efficacious Carfentanil Vaccine That Blunts Opioid-Induced Antinociception and Respiratory Depression

The opioid epidemic remains a dire public health crisis with millions of people currently suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) and tens of thousands dying each year. Synthetic opioids are most responsible for the crisis because of their extreme potency and ease of manufacture. Carfentanil for example has an estimated potency 10,000 times greater than morphine and thus is highly dangerous for human use. Herein, we report two synthetic opioid vaccines that elicited high-affinity antibodies against carfentanil and fentanyl with cross-reactivity to other synthetic opioids in mice and offered protection against opioid-induced respiratory depression, the primary cause of overdose deaths. These vaccines also successfully diminished drug biodistribution to the brain and shielded against opioid analgesic effects. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the development of immunotherapeutic strategies aimed at opioid abuse and overdose.

Automated summary

The opioid epidemic remains a dire public health crisis, with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl being highly potent and dangerous. Researchers have developed vaccines targeting synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil, which have shown protective effects in mice, providing new strategies for preventing drug abuse and overdose.