Vaccination is the general term doctors use to describe a process that protects the body from an infectious illness by preemptively introducing a weaker form of the illness in order to prepare and stimulate the immune system. The key to this process is the immune system’s ability to produce specialized proteins, called antibodies, which chemically “tag” the source of the illness for future reference and rapid response. Currently, researchers from several institutions are using the vaccine model to produce a treatment that blocks the effects of the illegal, addictive street drug heroin.
