A chemically contiguous hapten approach for a heroin–fentanyl vaccine

• Yoshihiro Natori,
• Candy S. Hwang,
• Lucy Lin,
• Lauren C. Smith,
• Bin Zhou and
• Kim D. Janda

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 1020–1031, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.100

• . The current study examines an approach for combatting the dangers of fentanyl-laced heroin, by using a hapten with one epitope that has domains for both fentanyl and heroin. Results: We evaluated a series of nine vaccines developed from chemically contiguous haptens composed of both heroin- and

• fentanyl-like domains. Analysis of the results obtained by SPR and ELISA revealed trends in antibody affinity and titers for heroin and fentanyl based on epitope size and linker location. In antinociception studies, the best performing vaccines offered comparable protection against heroin as our benchmark

• heroin vaccine, but exhibited attenuated protection against fentanyl compared to our fentanyl vaccine. Conclusion: After thorough investigation of this strategy, we have identified key considerations for the development of a chemically contiguous heroin–fentanyl vaccine. Importantly, this is the first