Male Birth Control Drug Proves Successful in Mice Models

Scientists from Cornell University announced their experimental drug temporarily blocks sperm in mice and prevents pregnancies in preclinical trials. The researchers described their approach as a “game-changer” that could pave the way for a male contraceptive pill and could ultimately share the birth control burden among genders.

According to the finding published in Nature Communications, the contraceptive was 100 percent effective at preventing pregnancy for about 2 hours in mice models, with total fertility returning 24 hours later.

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The Inequality in Birth Control Responsibility

There are no other reliable methods for men to prevent their sperm from impregnating their partner except for using condoms during intercourse or receiving a vasectomy. Although some previous studies on experimental male contraceptives have also achieved impressive success rates, most of them impact sperm development, which means taking months for the contraceptive to be reliable and taking weeks to reverse its effect.

Meanwhile, women have been taking contraceptive pills since the 1960s. Despite its efficacy in birth control and improvement in women’s reproductive health, it is often criticized due to the common side effects from the synthetic hormones in the pill, including severe migraines, vomiting, depression, and anxiety. 

Leveraging Natural Infertility Causes to Create a Male Contraceptive

Sperm require a protein called soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) to move, and those who suffer from rare genetic mutations fail to produce sAC and, thus, are infertile. So, the scientists devised the idea to try an sAC-inhibiting drug as a male contraceptive. Once sperm are immobile, they lose the ability to travel up the vaginal tract to fertilize an egg.   

To confirm the efficacy of destructing sperm motility, the team assessed the movement of sperm collected from 17 male mice, eight of whom received the drug. In samples collected 2 hours after mice received the drug, only 6 percent of sperm were mobile on average compared with 30 percent in samples from control mice. The effect wore off after about 24 hours, which means the novel contraceptive is also rapidly reversible.

In addition, the researchers paired 52 male mice with females 30 minutes after giving the males the contraceptive drug. After 2 hours, each pair had mated, and no pregnancies occurred, indicating the contraceptive was 100 percent effective. Moreover, no noticeable side effects were noticed even when mice received three times the standard dose of a comparable compound continuously for 42 days.  

Currently, researchers are planning to refine the drug so that it lasts longer before moving on to clinical trials. The final goal would be creating a pill that men could take shortly before sex, allowing them to make day-to-day decisions about their fertility.  

Author

Nai Ye Yeat

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