Pubdate: Fri, 20 Nov 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Bradley Fikes

$1.6M GRANT AWARDED FOR HEROIN VACCINE STUDY

The federal government has awarded a $1.6 million grant to scientists 
at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla for preclinical studies 
of a potential vaccine against heroin.

The two-year grant from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse will 
fund advanced work on the experimental vaccine, Kim Janda, leader of 
the project, said Thursday.

The vaccine was first developed by Janda and some colleagues at the 
institute in 2013.

The vaccine has been demonstrated in mouse models to be safe and 
effective, Janda said.

It causes the body's immune system to make antibodies that bind to 
the drug, preventing it from causing a high. If that high is blocked, 
heroin addicts will presumably be less prone to relapse.

Janda said the vaccine needs to be optimized, and that process will 
be undertaken with colleagues from Virginia Commonwealth University 
and Molecular Express, a Compton-based company. The testing in mice 
will be repeated in primates, which provide a closer model to human biology.

"It's been something lacking in the past; people just skirted this 
issue. They went right from rodents to humans, and I think that's a 
mistake," Janda said.

The primate study will show whether the vaccine works in the same way 
that it does in rodents, he said. Researchers will examine how the 
antibodies are made, and then perform behavioral tests.

Janda said if the results in primates are comparable to those in 
mice, researchers will have a clear path to designing a human 
clinical trial. If not, the vaccine concept will have to be re-examined.

Janda said the study will also examine the making of a vaccine to 
safeguard against abusing two synthetic opioids, hydrocodone and 
oxycodone. And he's considering making a 3-in-1 vaccine. Heroin 
addicts may get hooked on these other opioids when the heroin they 
buy is "cut" with these other drugs, he said.

Overall, Janda also has studied possible vaccines against other 
drugs, namely cocaine and nicotine.
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