A study in mice has found that an innovative compound, a molecule called TDI-11861, manages to temporarily block sperm functions. That is, it would work as a male contraceptive that after certain hours the spermatozoa would become functional againrecovering its fertilization capacity.
This possible future male contraceptive pill would be administered in a single dose orally before having sexual intercourse and would not affect ejaculation or sexual behavior of the man.
The article, published in Nature Communications, is a major step towards the development of a male contraceptive drug for humans. In fact, four co-authors of the study have founded a company in the US to develop products of this type.
Fertility study in mice
To test the efficacy of the compound, the scientists gave male mice a compound that temporarily deactivates soluble adenyl cyclase (sAC). named TDI-11861an essential protein in the fertilizing capacity of mammalian sperm in order to reach the egg and thus fertilize it.
As pointed out by the Science Media Center Luz Candenas de Luján, a researcher in reproductive biology at the Institute of Chemical Research “other attempts have been made to develop male contraceptivesbut, for the moment, none of these drugs has managed to enter the clinic. Although this research has been carried out in mice and clinical trials are necessary to corroborate the efficacy of the drug in humans, this study opens the door to the development of the first male single-use contraceptive pill, offering an interesting alternative to the exclusive use of oral contraceptives in women”.
An innovative approach to stop sperm
But how did scientists come to discover the contraceptive possibilities of inhibiting this protein? As on many other occasions in science, it seems that it was pure serendipity. As explained from the Weil Cornell University of Medicine, in 2018, Dr. Melanie Balbach made an interesting discovery while working on sAC inhibitors as a possible treatment for an ocular condition. She found that mice given a drug that inactivates sAC produced sperm incapable of propelling forward, thus losing the ability to fertilize.
More specifically, according to the scientists, just a single dose of a sAC inhibitor can achieve immobilize sperm from mice for up to two and a half hours and the effects persist in the female reproductive tract after copulation. After three hours, some sperm begin to regain mobility; at 24 hours, almost all the spermatozoa have recovered normal movement.
The oldest sperm in the world
A unique male contraceptive
As Dr. Balbach herself explains, “our inhibitor works between 30 minutes and an hour,” further noting that “all other experimental hormonal or non-hormonal male contraceptives it takes weeks for sperm count to drop or render them incapable of fertilizing eggs.”
On the other hand, according to the researchers, it takes weeks to reverse the effects of other hormonal and non-hormonal male contraceptives currently in development. However, the sAC inhibitors wear off in a matter of hours, and the men would take it only when needed, allowing decide your own fertility daily.
In short, a great step towards achieving a male contraceptive pill despite the fact that there are still many scientific studies to be carried out on its effects in humans.