Another male contraceptive
Despite all the efforts made in recent decades, the process of developing non-hormonal male contraceptives is stalling. Dr. Wei Yang of the Lundqvist Institute of Biomedical Innovation and his colleagues have created a safe, effective and reversible male contraceptive from a natural compound and demonstrated its effectiveness in preclinical studies.
A new contraceptive tryptonide can be obtained from the herbaceous plant Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F or by chemical synthesis. A single daily oral administration of tryptonide led to a decrease in the lack of mobility in almost 100% of spermatozoa and, as a result, male infertility after 3-4 and 5-6 weeks in mice and crab-eating macaques, respectively. After discontinuation of treatment, males of both species became fertile again after about 4-6 weeks and were able to give healthy offspring.
Neither short–term nor long-term exposure to tryptonide caused systemic toxic side effects - this was assessed using histological studies of vital organs in mice and biochemical blood tests in monkeys.
A series of biochemical studies suggested that tryptonide targets one of the last stages of sperm assembly, disrupting the interaction of placoglobin with SPEM1 during spermiogenesis. This leads to the production of weakly mobile spermatozoa, unable to reach the egg and fertilize it.
The data obtained during the study indicate that tryptonide is a very promising non-hormonal contraceptive for men, since it meets all the criteria of a candidate for contraceptives, including bioavailability, efficacy, reversibility and safety.
Yang and colleagues hope that they will soon be able to start clinical trials in humans in order to make non-hormonal male contraceptives a reality as soon as possible. Having a large selection of available methods of contraception is very important, as it will allow couples to safely and effectively plan a family at different stages of their reproductive life, with different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and economic status.
Article by Z.Chang et al. Triptonide is a reversible non-hormonal male contraceptive agent in mice and non-human primates published in the journal Nature Communications.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of The Lundquist Institute: Nature Communications Publishes Paper by Lundquist Institute Investigator Dr. Wei Yan and Colleagues on New Promising Compound for Male Contraceptive Pill.