Following impressive results from an experimental contraceptive medicine created by Weill Cornell Medical researchers, men may soon have access to “male pill” contraceptives.
Male pill provides an alternative to condoms and vasectomies
Professors of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-senior authors Drs. Jochen Buck and Lonny Levin conducted experiments in an effort to provide men with alternative contraceptive methods than vasectomies and condoms. There are presumptions that males have a low threshold for probable contraceptive side effects because they aren’t the ones that become pregnant.
Dr Levin challenged Dr Buck to separate soluble adenyl cyclase (sAC), a crucial cellular signalling molecule which had long baffled biochemists. Dr Buck could not refuse. However, it took two years of study before they decided to unite their labs and change the direction of their research to sAC.
The team found that sAC-deficient mice are infertile. While researching sAC inhibitors as prospective treatments for an eye ailment in 2018, Dr Melanie Balbach, a PhD associate in their group, made an interesting discovery. She found that mice were given a medication that disables sAC to make sperm which are immobile. The researchers were confident that sAC suppression could serve as a secure means of contraception by the observation that men missing the sAC gene encoding were sterile but healthy.
The tablet used as a contraceptive prevents sperms from swimming. According to researchers, one benefit is that it doesn’t suppress testosterone or negatively affect the male hormone. However, according to the BBC, the investigational male tablet prevents sAC.
The new male pill takes 30 minutes to work
The outcomes can take up to three hours. However, the fresh batch of sperm will be swimming properly in 24 hours. According to the latest research, a single dosage of the sAC inhibitor TDI-11861 can paralyze mouse sperms for up to 2.5 hours. The impacts can last even after mating in the female reproductive system.
Dr Balbach claims that the inhibitor starts to function in 30 to 60 minutes. On the other hand, it takes other investigational non-hormonal or hormonal male contraceptives weeks to reduce sperm counts or prevent them from fertilizing eggs.
