Google – AFP, 3 December 2013
Sydney — A contraceptive pill for men has moved one step closer after Australian researchers successfully made male mice infertile, according to a study published Tuesday.
A
contraceptive pill for men has moved one step closer after Australian
researchers
successfully made male mice infertile, according to a study
(AFP/File, Peter Parks)
|
Sydney — A contraceptive pill for men has moved one step closer after Australian researchers successfully made male mice infertile, according to a study published Tuesday.
Monash
University scientists genetically modified mice to block two proteins found on
the smooth muscle cells which are essential for sperm to travel through the
animal's reproductive organs.
The result
was that even though the mice had sex normally and were otherwise healthy, they
were infertile, researcher Sabatino Ventura from Melbourne's Monash University
said.
"We've
shown that simultaneously disrupting the two proteins that control the
transport of sperm during ejaculation causes complete male infertility,"
Ventura said.
"But
without affecting the long-term viability of sperm or the sexual or general
health of males. The sperm is effectively there, but the muscle is just not
receiving the chemical message to move it."
Ventura,
who collaborated with researchers from the University of Melbourne and
Britain's University of Leicester on the study, now wants to replicate the
genetic process chemically, and believes a male contraceptive pill could be
possible in about 10 years.
"The
next step is to look at developing an oral male contraceptive drug, which is
effective, safe, and readily reversible," he said.
The
findings, published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science, show that the absence of two proteins in mice caused infertility,
without affecting the long-term viability of the sperm, sexual behaviour, or
the health of the animals.
Previous
attempts to develop a male contraceptive pill have focused on hormones or
producing dysfunctional sperm -- methods which can interfere with male sexual
activity and cause long-term and potentially irreversible effects on fertility.
Ventura
said because his approach was non-hormonal and did not impact on the
development of sperm, a drug which switched off the two proteins should not
have any long-term side effects and could be reversed once the man stopped
taking it.
"It
would block the transport of sperm and then if you're a young guy and you get
to the stage where you wanted to start fathering children, you stop taking it
and everything should be okay," he told broadcaster ABC.
"It
would be like an oral medication probably taken daily just like the female
contraceptive pill."
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