innovate arkansas

A treatment for drug addiction may sound too good to be true for the families and users whose lives have been affected by these substances.  However, thanks to a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researcher, there is hope for a vaccine.

Recently featured in the April issue of Nature Medicine magazine, Michael Owens, Ph.D., professor and director of the UAMS Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and the Wilbur Mills Endowed Chair in Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, has received national attention for his research on treatments for drug addiction.

To read a copy of the Nature Medicine article, visit http://www.uams.edu/docs/Immune-Marris.pdf.

Having researched treatments for drug addiction since the 1980s, Owens and his colleagues say that their company, InterveXion, is preparing clinical trials for treating users of phencyclidine, commonly referred to as PCP.

"It is a very long process," said Owens. "We are going through the drug development stages from basic research and pre-clinical, to preparation for clinical trials."
 
Owens and his colleagues have developed several proposed medications for the treatment of methamphetamine, as well as PCP, addiction that will counteract the substances by stopping the effects on the user's body.

The vaccine will train the immune system to recognize the drug and create antibodies to bind and disable the drug molecules. Essentially, the vaccine would make users experience reduced or no effects.

Research to develop a vaccine first began in 1974 with a group of researchers from the University of Chicago.

Owens' work starting in the 1980s brought back interest in the area of developing medications to counteract drug addiction. Now, several academic labs and small companies are working to investigate immunological approaches to treat drug addiction, including the one Owens heads at UAMS.

For the vaccine to attack the substances, research was first done to find out how to stimulate the immune system to neutralize drugs of abuse. This has progressed over the years to making high-tech proteins that can precisely attack and neutralize drugs such as methamphetamine.

The antibodies work to remove the drug from the brain, which in turn reduces the immediate short-term effects, along with reducing the chance of long-term damage.
The formation of a vaccine for methamphetamine and phencyclidine looks promising. However, the high cost and how to make each person respond to the vaccine are two variables that scientists are working on.

(This article was originally published in the June 24 issue of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' In the News newsletter.)