2-14-2023 9:56am

Researchers identify compounds that could lead to an on-demand, short-term contraceptive for men

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

According to a research study of mice, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have pinpointed a potential non-hormonal contraceptive that males could take momentarily before sexual activity and have fertility restored the next day.

Researchers gave male mice a compound that temporarily disables soluble adenylyl cyclase, the enzyme necessary for activating a sperm cell’s ability to swim and mature so that it can travel via the female reproductive tract and fertilize an egg.

In various tests, the researchers revealed that the compound TDI-11861 caused mouse sperm cells to become immobile and prevented the sperm cells from maturing. The compounds did not affect the mouse’s sexual functioning. Although male mice mated with female mice, no pregnancies occurred.

The Sperm collected from female mice stayed incapacitated. The authors did not report any side effects in the male or female mice. The compound wore off three hours thereafter, and males regained their fertility.

The study was conducted by Melanie Balbach, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of coauthors Jochen Buck, Ph.D., and Lonnie Levin, Ph.D., at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, and colleagues. It appears in Nature Communications. Funding was provided by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Aging, and National Cancer Institute.

The researchers said their work provides proof of concept that soluble adenylyl cyclase inhibitors have the potential to provide a safe, on-demand, non-hormonal, and reversible oral contraceptive for men, according to Christopher C. Lindsey, P.h.D., a program official, in the NICHD Contraception Research Branch.

This article was updated by Anita Johnson-Brown