Most are familiar with vaccines that help to increase the body's immune system effectively against the flu and other diseases, but a totally new kind of vaccine could serve as a viable candidate for helping to treat heroin addiction.
Addictions aren't easy to cope with; they can have lots of health-related side effects when the body doesn't get its way, and this is problematic for those who try to quit their addictions cold turkey.
The vaccine trains the immune system to create antibodies that go after heroin, making the high from heroin less effective and addiction withdrawals less intense. In turn, this could make it easier for both first-time and chronic heroin users to break the habit once and for all.
The vaccine has reportedly passed clinical trials in rodents, but while it hasn't reached human test subjects just yet, could in the future.
It would seem there are bright times ahead for anti-drug therapies that could effectively help those in dire need.
