posted on Jul, 2 2006 @ 01:05 AM
Hrmm, I searched as well, through my own medical journal search engines like PubMed, my hard copies of journals, and google, too, and came up with
nothing.
There's one main problem you would run into with something like this. See, the reason you have massive withdrawals from heroin and related drugs, and
also why you constantly need to increase the dosage, is that when dopamine receptors on neurons are stimulated to active the chemical signal, they
also stimulate the creationg of more dopamine receptors. This is how your body manages to use a good deal of the dopamine released by your neurons.
However, once the dopamine levels drop off, you are left with just a few empty receptors, which will be destroyed, leaving only the primary receptors.
The problem occurs, however, when you introduce an antagonist. Antagonists mimic the effect of a chemical; heroin acts as an antagonist for dopamine,
if I'm not mistaken. This huge increase in dopamine antagonists causes the creation on many, many more receptors, which eventually go unfilled,
leading to the post-high crash. Thus, any vaccine that would act in a similar nature, that is, filling the gaps in dopamine receptors, would cause the
same crash effect, albeit perhaps without the addiction.
So, essentially, this may not be a true vaccine, rather more of a safe alternative to methadone for heroin addicts to wean themselves off of drugs
with. That is, if it exists.
Mariella