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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   2575 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 1, 2024

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I am reading a lot of reporting now about "fentanyl vaccine". I am not sure what's going on there, can anybody explain it to me? Specific questions:

  1. I understand that vaccines work by training the immune system to recognize certain proteins associated with pathogens and have other immune cells to bind to them and destroy them (not quite sure how but maybe not important). But fentanyl is a relatively basic compound, wouldn't training immune system to grab on something this simple also have a danger for it to react on many other simple compounds and disrupt the normal function of the body chemistry? What happens to fentanyl once the immune system recognizes it - is it broken into basic hydrocarbons? Somehow captured and expelled? How does that work exactly?

  2. I assume it is supposed to somehow fight fentanyl addiction. However, assuming it's effective all it would do is make the addict not to be able to get high from fentanyl. They however still will stay addicted, both physiologically and physiologically, not? Wouldn't they immediately seek to get high on some other drug, of which there are dozens? Wouldn't they still suffer withdrawal since their body still craves fentanyl but now is not getting any effect from it - wouldn't that make them take higher and higher dose? Also, would any drug addict voluntarily undergo treatment that would leave them as addicted as before but without any ability to get a fix? How is it supposed to work to solve the problem?

Also, would any drug addict voluntarily undergo treatment that would leave them as addicted as before but without any ability to get a fix? How is it supposed to work to solve the problem?

There is a medication that works this way for alcohol and some alcoholics do willingly take it.

A pill means you only need self control 2 minutes a day rather than 24 hours a day.

But you still are free to take other drugs, including other opiates? For an alcoholic, there's no easy substitute I presume.

The press release claims it's specific to fentanyl and that morphine in particular isn't affected, so that those opting for the "vaccine" can still get pain relief.

Morphine is probably harder to get on the street, but if memory serves heroin is an alternative, and it does get metabolized to morphine before it starts acting.

Disulfiram, the analogue for alcohol, isn't related in terms of how it works. It basically switches off the enzyme that makes it possible to break down alcohol, causing the mother of all Asian Flushes, and basically makes taking alcohol too unpleasant to countenance. I see no mention of such a mechanism here, it claims to simply bind up the fentanyl and stop it causing any effects on the body from what I can tell, but I'll have to read the paper later for more insight.

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