Vaccines Global Summit

Vaccines Against Drugs has emerged as a recent and revolutionary technology in the prevention of drug addiction. Vaccines are developed to aid the body in fighting a substance abuse condition by activating the individual's immune system to develop antibodies that specifically target and neutralize the drug molecules before they could gain entry into the brain. Thus, substances that provoke the desired 'high' or euphoric effect are blocked, reducing the motive to continue using the substance.

Drug addiction continues to rank among the most important global health issues, especially with regards to drugs such as cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and opioids. The primary drug addiction treatment modalities include behavioral therapy, medication-assisted treatment, and counseling. A further layer of protection is offered by the drug vaccines that prevent the drug from exerting its effect due to attenuation of drug effects, which reduces craving and relapse.

A drug vaccine would train the immune system to recognize as foreign invaders the drug molecules themselves. When the vaccinated person takes the drug, the immune system starts producing antibodies that lock the drug molecules out of the brain through binding them, preventing the drug from crossing the blood-brain barrier. This locks out the drug from the reward centers of the brain, thereby obstructing a user's high and thus being able to weaken addiction.

Early-stage vaccine research on vaccines targeted to drugs, like cocaine and heroin, seems promising, some vaccines result in the significant diminution of physiological and behavioral effects of drugs. For nicotine addiction, vaccines have also been designed to help individuals quit smoking by interfering with the delivery of nicotine to the brain.

However, these vaccines do not come about without their own set of challenges. First and foremost, the vaccines must be developed to achieve an adequate and long-lived immune response in order not to precipitate a relapse in many cases, as treatment of substance use disorder often calls for long-term answers to a manifestly chronic problem.

As such, while the research is continually changing, vaccines against drugs may eventually become a strong tool in the process of controlling substance use disorders with hope for better dealing with more effective, long-term treatments to combat this growing global issue.