WVU research aims to increase addiction treatment effectiveness

Stories | WVU Today | West Virginia University

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Up to 20 percent of people with opioid use disorder may not respond to standard treatment. A new study at West Virginia University seeks to understand why.

According to data compiled by The New York Times in a report earlier this month, the opioid epidemic in America has reached a critical level with last year seeing the largest ever annual jump in drug overdose deaths. West Virginia has been hit especially hard by this problem, leading the nation in drug overdose death rates.

The fixed-dose combination of buprenorphine/naloxone is one of only two major pharmacological interventions approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat opioid dependence. This treatment helps those suffering with opioid dependence by activating opioid receptors in the brain.

“Sadly, not all patients struggling with opioid dependence who seek help respond to treatment,” said Marina Galvez Peralta, Ph.D., PharmD, principal investigator of the study and assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy. “We need to identify why some patients are not responding to buprenorphine/naloxone treatment so we can better target this population and provide recommendations to improve treatment efficacy and therapeutic success.”

It’s a life-or-death question for many patients.

There are many factors that are involved in treatment response, but so far there are only preliminary studies trying to address individual response to buprenorphine/naloxone.

“Although there are environmental and social factors that affect how patients respond to buprenorphine/naloxone and their ability to win their personal fights against addiction, we are seeking to identify genetic variations that could affect how buprenorphine works in the brain or is metabolized,” said Galvez Peralta. “By comparing genetic variants with metabolomics of buprenorphine we can identify patients at risk of failure, and potential new targets for treatment. This way, we could provide better and more personalized care to these patients and really ...

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