Addiction Protection By Susan Gaidos: Article Summary
Caroline Little
Addiction Protection Summary
In Susan Gaidos article Addiction Protection she explores the idea of creating vaccines to help opioid addicts stay clean. In the past decade the number of opioid deaths has skyrocketed. In the past few years people have been concerned because the number of deaths related to opioid use has increased Because of the recent surge in heroin usage, scientists and health professionals are desperate to find a way to stop the epidemic. There are drugs on the market now to help with heroin addiction. However, these come with side effects, are expensive and are not widely accessible. Heroin is so addictive because of the way opioids are structured. They are able to physically change the structure brain. …show more content…
However, scientist are having a hard time creating a vaccine that can prevent the heroin from affecting the person for many reasons. One is that the particles in heroin are very tiny and hard to find and the second is that when heroin is injected it is not just one foreign body it is thousands. Kim Janda and his team of scientists found a breakthrough in producing one of these vaccines. They found in mice that the heroin antibodies alone did not prevent the animal from getting high, because once absorbed the heroin is broken down to morphine and 6-AM. This new discovery was a breakthrough and lead to the creation of a “cocktail” vaccine. This vaccine is special because instead of targeting a single invader like other vaccines it targets the morphine, and 6-AM by carrying a drug like protein, heptin to induce an immune response and finally alum to jumpstart the immune system. After 6 years of modification the vaccine was tested in mice. The results were that the vaccine prevented addicted mice from getting high because heroin had no impact on their brains! These mice eventually stopped seeking out the drug altogether because they were unable to get the satisfaction they wanted. Because this vaccine is only tailored to heroin, patients will still be
Addiction Protection Summary
In Susan Gaidos article Addiction Protection she explores the idea of creating vaccines to help opioid addicts stay clean. In the past decade the number of opioid deaths has skyrocketed. In the past few years people have been concerned because the number of deaths related to opioid use has increased Because of the recent surge in heroin usage, scientists and health professionals are desperate to find a way to stop the epidemic. There are drugs on the market now to help with heroin addiction. However, these come with side effects, are expensive and are not widely accessible. Heroin is so addictive because of the way opioids are structured. They are able to physically change the structure brain. …show more content…
However, scientist are having a hard time creating a vaccine that can prevent the heroin from affecting the person for many reasons. One is that the particles in heroin are very tiny and hard to find and the second is that when heroin is injected it is not just one foreign body it is thousands. Kim Janda and his team of scientists found a breakthrough in producing one of these vaccines. They found in mice that the heroin antibodies alone did not prevent the animal from getting high, because once absorbed the heroin is broken down to morphine and 6-AM. This new discovery was a breakthrough and lead to the creation of a “cocktail” vaccine. This vaccine is special because instead of targeting a single invader like other vaccines it targets the morphine, and 6-AM by carrying a drug like protein, heptin to induce an immune response and finally alum to jumpstart the immune system. After 6 years of modification the vaccine was tested in mice. The results were that the vaccine prevented addicted mice from getting high because heroin had no impact on their brains! These mice eventually stopped seeking out the drug altogether because they were unable to get the satisfaction they wanted. Because this vaccine is only tailored to heroin, patients will still be