Shake, but do not mix
A long-term male contraceptive has been invented, working on the principle of a layered cocktail
Four injections, lifting the blockade in a few minutes, the effect is up to 65 days
Evgenia Beresneva, "The Attic"
Scientists from China have developed and successfully tested a new method of male contraception on rats. The sequential injection of several ingredients of the "cocktail" blocked the reproductive function of male rats for two months, and it took only a few minutes to affect the experimental subjects with infrared light to disable the blocking.
To date, the vast majority of contraceptive methods are intended for women. Among the common methods for men are only the use of condoms and such a radical method as vasectomy, ligation or removal of a fragment of the vas deferens. The new method described in the journal ACS Nano, on the one hand, can be of medium–term or long-term action, and on the other - allows you to restore reproductive function at any time.
Scientists compare their drug with a bar cocktail. Bartenders make colorful cocktails from several layers that are clearly separated from each other, but it is worth shaking or heating the cocktail – they are mixed. The researchers created their own cocktail: a layer of hydrogel forming a physical barrier for sperm, a layer of gold nanoparticles, a layer of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, harmful to sperm, and, finally, another layer of gold nanoparticles.
Successively introduced into the vas deferens of male rats, these substances created a mechanical and biochemical barrier to fertilization. And irradiation with infrared light for several minutes heated the gold particles, which, in turn, heated the entire "cocktail" – the ingredients were mixed, the acid destroyed the hydrogel layer and the barrier disappeared.
Figure from the press release of ACS Nano Layered cocktails inspire new form of male birth control – VM.
In experiments, the effect of such a blockade lasted 65 days, but scientists note that it can be longer, it all depends on the amounts of substances injected.
The authors of the work call the experiment promising, but clarify that it is still far from creating a similar drug for humans: additional research and verification of the safety of the drug for the human body are needed. In particular, doubts are raised about the safety of the injection itself (the authors of the work note cases of inflammation during experiments) and the risk of negative consequences for the quality of sperm in case of prolonged blockade.
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