# Immunoantagonist effects on opioid choice

> **NIH NIH F32** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $33,723

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis. Increasingly, these deaths are attributable to the
use of illicit opioids like heroin and fentanyl. Although FDA-approved pharmacotherapies for Opioid Use Disorder
(OUD) are available, the utilization rate for these pharmacotherapies is low and the frequency of OUD diagnosis
is increasing, indicating a need for improved treatment options. One strategy for addressing this crisis may
include the use of vaccines designed to target illicit opioids (i.e., immunoantagonists). These vaccines are
intended to prevent the target opioid (e.g., heroin, fentanyl) from entering the brain, blocking the abuse-related
effects of the opioid. This fellowship proposes to evaluate two candidate anti-opioid vaccines using behavioral
(i.e., drug self-administration) and neurochemical (i.e., in-vivo microdialysis) procedures. Specifically, Aim 1 will
determine the effectiveness of a well characterized anti-heroin vaccine to diminish heroin vs. food choice in male
and female rhesus monkeys. Given the phylogenetic similarities between rhesus monkeys and humans, the data
collected from Aim 1 would be expected to be highly predictive of the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic
consequences of vaccination in man. Aim 2 will evaluate the effectiveness of a relatively novel anti-fentanyl
vaccine to diminish fentanyl vs. food choice in male and female rats. If this anti-fentanyl vaccine proves to be
effective in the rodent self-administration model, we would rapidly progress its evaluation to the rhesus monkeys
of Aim 1. Finally, Aim 3 will use in-vivo microdialysis to evaluate the effectiveness of an anti-fentanyl vaccine to
diminish opioid-induced dopamine release in male and female rats, providing for a mechanistic correlate to the
behavioral effects observed in Aims 1 and 2. Overall, the proposed research will improve our understanding of
the potential utility of immunoantagonists for the treatment of OUD.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9873819
- **Project number:** 5F32DA047026-02
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Edward Andrew Townsend
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $33,723
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-11 → 2020-08-10

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9873819

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9873819, Immunoantagonist effects on opioid choice (5F32DA047026-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9873819. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*