For decades, there has been talk about the need for a birth control pill for men. Now, a team of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine has unveiled a non-hormonal method specific to sperm that could become the solution.

Published on May 24 in the journal Science, the study shows details of the promising human male reversible contraceptive pill. Martin Matzuk, author of the study and professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Baylor, clarified, however, that “although researchers have studied various strategies to develop male contraceptives, we still do not have a contraceptive pill for men.”

What the group of researchers has done is focus on a novel approach to “identify a small molecule that inhibits serine/threonine kinase 33 (STK33), a protein essential for fertility in men and mice,” according to Matzuk.

In their work, scientists have managed to demonstrate that the STK33 gene (in the testicles) is necessary to form functional sperm.

In tests with mice, the deletion of this gene makes them sterile, since the sperm generated are abnormal and have poor motility.

The mutation in the STK33 gene also causes infertility in men. The researchers add that “mice and men with these mutations do not present other defects and even have a normal testicular size.”

They estimate that testing should continue, given that the STK33 inhibitors described so far are not potent enough to “chemically disrupt the function of STK33 in living organisms.”

The team continues to work on inhibitors and other compounds to achieve an effective alternative as a reversible male contraceptive method.

M.Pino

Source: alnavio

(Reference image source: Simone van der Koelen in Unsplash)

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