Scripps Research in La Jolla says it has taken a promising step toward developing a vaccine to fight the effects of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that’s illicitly added to fentanyl and heroin, triggering a rise in overdose deaths.
The institute’s experimental vaccine blocked xylazine’s toxic effect in experiments conducted on rodents, according to a paper published earlier this month in the journal Chemical Communications. It works by stimulating the immune system to create antibodies that reduce the level of xylazine in the blood stream, the institute said.
Veterinarians regularly use xylazine to sedate or calm everything from sheep and cattle to cats and dogs before surgery or while conducting diagnostic tests. It’s been approved for that purpose by the U.S. Food and Drug istration. But it is not approved for use in humans because it can slow breathing and heart rates and produce dangerously low blood-pressure levels.
Scientists say xylazine, a non-opioid sedative, also can cause skin lesions and wounds that don’t heal and sometimes lead to the need to amputate parts of legs or arms.
Xyaline is often illicitly added to fentanyl and other drugs to lengthen the feeling of euphoria they can give, scientists say. It has taken on the nickname “zombie drug.”
“There is currently no remedy for xylazine poisoning other than ive care, thus, we believe our research efforts and the data we have provided will pave the way for an effective treatment in humans,” Kim D. Janda, the Scripps chemist who is leading the research, said in a statement.
The precise number of human deaths caused by the addition of xylazine to fentanyl and other drugs is not known. But the Journal of the American Medical Association reported in January that at least 43 states reported deaths related to xylazine, which also is known as “tranq dope.”
Scripps Research is deeply involved in vaccine research and made significant contributions to the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and by Pfizer and BioNTech.
