Only briefly incapable of new pill for the man

So far, contraception in men has been essentially confined to the use of condoms. However, scientists have been working for years on the development of a pill for men. Japanese researchers are now reporting on their achievements in this area.

Prevention with pill is preferred
Investigations in recent years have shown that in Germany - as in many other countries - contraception with pill and condom is preferred. Women have a wealth of medical contraceptives of various quality available. For men, however, the selection is much lower. In addition to the not quite safe use of condom actually remains only connected to a medical procedure method of vasectomy, the surgical transection of the vas deferens. Despite decades of research, contraception for men is still not possible by medical means.

Years of research brought no breakthrough
Although in recent years, had been repeatedly reported on success in the research of the pill for men, but usually followed soon again reports of problems such as serious side effects. For example, a World Health Organization (WHO) study on the birth control contraceptive for men was stopped in 2011, as many subjects did not tolerate the testosterone injection. Now, Japanese researchers led by Masahito Ikawa from the University of Osaka report crucial forestry steps in the field of drug prevention for men. Accident played a big role, according to "deutschlandfunk.de".

Researchers made coincidence
The researchers said they were actually interested in a protein that plays an important role in the immune system, the calcineurin: "We had noticed that there are more than one gene in calcareurin in mammalian genetic material. One of them is only read in semen. We were just curious what the function of this sperm calcineurin is. Therefore, we have bred mice in which exactly this gene was inactive. We had expected to see a sperm production disorder and were very disappointed not to find any difference at all. "After the offspring of the genetically modified mice, Masahito Ikawa and his colleagues took a closer look at the sperm. They filmed their movement with a high-speed camera. It turned out that the sperm of the genetically modified animals had a stiff scourge, which meant that they lacked the power to fertilize an egg.

Temporarily unable to produce
"So we thought that could be a way to develop a male contraceptive. We knew from human medicine that certain drugs override calcineurin. So we tried these remedies in healthy male mice. And that actually worked. That surprised us a lot. "As the scientists in the journal" Science "report," the sperm of the mouse males became lame two weeks after the start of drug administration and the animals were infertile. However, the sperm were fit again one week after weaning and the males were fertile. "

Drug impairs immune system
Since there is the special sperm calcineurin not only in mice, but also in men, lame sperm would in principle be a conceivable method of contraception. According to the current state of knowledge, however, with unwanted side effects, because the drugs that are so effective in the mice are used in human medicine to shut down the immune system, for example, to prevent the rejection of a donor organ. "We need to develop a drug that does not affect the immune system. One that only suppresses sperm calcineurin. Possible candidates for this would be derivatives of the immunosuppressants that have been discarded in the development of today's approved drugs, because they do not affect the calcineurin of the immune system. But some of these remedies could block spermine calcineurin. "We're ready for the pill, says Masahito Ikawa." We're men. We have to take responsibility! "(Ad)