For years, scientists have tried to come up with a more viable solution for male birth control. At present, men really only have two options – condoms and vasectomies.
While condoms are affordable and accessible, they're prone to failure. Vasectomies, on the other hand, are often seen as a permanent form of male sterilization. If your goal is to not have kids at all, this is great. But the problem with vasectomies is the fact that they're extremely difficult to reverse, and are rather expensive to undergo.
However, men's birth control options – and responsibilities – could soon be expanding with a newly-developed pill.
99 percent effective in mice.
IMAGE: Simone van der Koelen / Unsplash
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a birth control pill that they believe could be the future of male contraception. In their own lab tests, they've observed the pill to be 99 percent effective in male mice.
“Scientists have been trying for decades to develop an effective male oral contraceptive, but there are still no approved pills on the market,” says Abdullah Al Noman, a graduate student in the lab of Gunda Georg at the University of Minnesota.
Most compounds that are currently undergoing trials target the male hormone testosterone. But choosing to target hormones could result with major side effects, such as weight gain, depression, and increased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels.
“We wanted to develop a non-hormonal male contraceptive to avoid these side effects,” says Noman.
The structure of the YCT529 compound. IMAGE: American Chemical Society
The compound, dubbed YCT529, targets a protein called the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR-α) – a form of Vitamin A that plays an important role in cell growth, sperm formation, and embryonic development. Eliminating the RAR-α gene in male mice makes them sterile, meaning they won't be able to reproduce. But a promising finding out of this is the fact that the male mice didn't experience any side effects at all.
RAR-α is just one of three different nuclear receptors that bind retinoic acid, the other two being RAR-β and RAR-γ. Other scientists have already developed a compound that inhibits all three receptors, but Georg wants to focus solely on targeting RAR-α so as to avoid any side effects.
The YCT529 compound that she developed with Noman was found to be 500 times more potent at inhibiting RAR-α. When given orally to male mice for four weeks, the compound dramatically reduced their sperm count and proved to be 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy. Four to six weeks after they stopped receiving the compound, the male mice were able to father pups again as usual – all this, without any side effects.
Human trials set for Q3 or Q4 of 2022.
IMAGE: We-Vibe Toys / Unsplash
Despite the promise shown in the YCT529 compound, the researchers are working on developing other compounds too. They're doing this in case their highlighted compound ends up failing in human trials, but also to improve upon it should it prove to be effective anyway.
“Because it can be difficult to predict if a compound that looks good in animal studies will also pan out in human trials, we’re currently exploring other compounds, as well,” Georg says.
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