If a certain potassium channel is blocked in them, sperm cannot fuse with the egg cell
Quelle: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF/MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Researchers have discovered a substance that prevents sperm cells from merging with an egg cell. This could lay the groundwork for a new contraceptive that promises to have almost no side effects.
Gaims to disable a specific ion channel in sperm – this could possibly serve as a contraceptive method in the future. Researchers from the USA and Belgium came to the conclusion in the journal “PNAS”. In order for a sperm to fertilize an egg, it snakes its way through the convolutions of the female reproductive tract and enters the egg at the end. For the actual fusion, it has to pierce the gelatinous ovum shell. To do this, the sperm changes its surface tension by pumping ions out of its core. So far it was unclear via which ion channel this happens.
In their study, the researchers identified this: it is the potassium channel SLO3. According to the researchers, if this is overridden with the help of a certain substance, the crucial ions can no longer flow out. A union would not be possible for the sperm and egg cell. The scientists managed to do this using a substance with the complicated name VU0546110.
This finding is interesting in two respects: On the one hand, it could be used to develop a new contraceptive that has few side effects. The SLO3 channel is found exclusively in sperm. Other metabolic processes thus remained unaffected. On the other hand, mutations in the channel that impair its function may be the reason for an as yet unexplained form of male infertility.
Artur Mayerhofer, Professor of Cell Biology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and not involved in the study himself, sees potential for future contraception in the discovery, such as a vaginal gel – possibly in combination with contraceptive gels – based on the substance used VU0546110 based. “Of course, contraceptive safety is then decisive, i.e. the reliability of the method,” says Mayerhofer.
The compatibility of the substance must also be tested. “It’s a long way, but it could be worth it.” There is a great need for methods that interfere as little as possible with the physiology of women and men and are not based on hormones. “Sperms and their function are an ideal target for this,” says Mayerhofer.