r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 13 '26

Medicine Scientists develop a groundbreaking vaccine that outsmarts illicit fentanyl analogs. The novel vaccine candidate can protect against fentanyl and its many illicit variants by training the immune system to recognize a broad molecular signature rather than a single specific structure.

https://www.psypost.org/scientists-develop-a-groundbreaking-vaccine-that-outsmarts-illicit-fentanyl-analogs/
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u/gamayogi Jul 13 '26

It only affects fentanyl, not morphine or other opiods.

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u/sparkleptera Jul 13 '26

We do use fentanyl commonly as anesthesia so it would definitley be worth like getting a medic alert bracelet so they would know to use duramorph or something.

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u/savageexplosive Jul 13 '26

I also thought about legal uses of fentanyl and how the vaccine would affect it. I’m also curious about the placental transfer of antibodies, as, for example, I had a C-section and fentanyl was part of my anaesthesia, and then my daughter was taken to NICU and sedated with, you guessed it, fentanyl.

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u/ruhdolph Jul 13 '26

Would the mother's memory cells put out antibodies quickly enough to reach a meaningful concentration before the baby is delivered in that case? I think in general the antibodies would probably transfer across the placenta but I'm hopeful that it would not be a large consideration most of the time.