The vaccine targets heroin and its psychoactive breakdown products in the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching the brain.
Scientists said: "Heroin-addicted rats deprived of the drug will normally resume using it compulsively if they regain access, but our vaccine stops this from happening."
George Koob who chairs TSRI's addiction research group says that if the vaccine works in human trials, it could become a standard part of therapy for heroin addiction, which is estimated to affect more than 10 million people worldwide.
Designing an effective vaccine against heroin has been particularly challenging because the drug breaks down rapidly in the bloodstream after injection. "Heroin is metabolized very quickly to another compound called 6-acetylmorphine, which crosses into the brain and accounts for much of heroin's effect."
The team, therefore, designed the heroin vaccine to elicit antibodies against not only heroin, but also 6-acetylmorphine and morphine.
The researchers are currently looking for a drug company to sponsor clinical trials in humans.
"Although it may not be a 'magic bullet' against all aspects of drug addiction, the dynamic nature of our heroin vaccine represents a promising and innovative adjunct therapy in the treatment of heroin addiction," the authors wrote.
In one challenging test, rats that had become severely addicted to heroin and were taking it compulsively in escalating amounts—amounts that would have been lethal to drug-naive rats—were forced to abstain for 30 days before being given renewed access.
In rats that had received a placebo vaccine, intake resumed and they re-escalated, taking the drug compulsively. But in the heroin-vaccinated rats, intake failed to escalate and compulsive drug taking did not redevelop.
"Basically we were able to stop them from going through that cycle of taking more and more heroin. And that was with the vaccine alone—ideally for human patients, the vaccine would be given with other treatments," the team said.
The researchers confirmed that the vaccine sequesters heroin and 6-acetylmorphine in the bloodstream, keeping it out of the brain.
The vaccine did not block the effects of methadone, buprenorphine and other opioid-receptor-targeting drugs that are commonly used in addiction therapy.
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