Scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a contraceptive pill that can prevent pregnancies in preclinical models.
According to Jochen Buck and Lonny Levin, professors of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine, this is the first major advancement in research on “an on-demand male contraceptive” for thousands of years following the existence of condoms as an option.
In 2018, Melanie Balbach—a postdoctoral associate in Messrs Buck and Levin’s lab—made an important discovery while working on sAC inhibitors as a possible treatment for an eye condition.
Results showed that mice given a drug that inhibits sAC produced sperm that were unable to propel themselves forward and immobilized them.
The study also demonstrated that a single dose of the inhibitor called TDI-11861 could immobilize mice sperm for up to two and half hours with lasting effects seen in female reproductive tract after mating.
Moving forward, the team intends to repeat their experiments in another preclinical model so as to prepare for human clinical trials which would test the effect of sAC inhibition on sperm motility in healthy human males.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
