From Nature Medicine's "Spoonful of Medicine" blog:

The serendipitous finding that a potential cancer-fighting compound temporarily halts sperm production in mice has seeded new hopes for a reversible male contraceptive pill. At a time when the only non-hormonal contraceptive choices for men consist of condoms and vasectomies, the finding, published today in the journal Cell, has stirred the interest of pharmaceutical companies, although it’s quite far from entering clinical trials.

Several new contraceptives that rely on steroid hormones are in the works to reduce sperm production in men. However, most products developed to date seem to carry undesirable side effects, such as acne and perturbations of cholesterol levels. So, scientists have sought to halt sperm production with compounds that do not alter hormones, targeting everything from calcium ion channels on the tails of sperm to the production of retinoic acid, a metabolite of Vitamin A that has a role in their development. A team led by Dolores Mruk at the Population Council’s Center for Biomedical Research in New York has even reported in Nature Medicine on the discovery of a chemical compound known as Adjudin that can stop sperm-forming cells from adhering to the Sertoli cells that nurture them.

The new findings announced today also describe a non-hormonal drug for stopping sperm—but contraception was the furthest thing from the minds of James Bradner and his colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who initially developed the experimental compound.

As we reported last year, Bradner’s team had investigated a small molecule called JQ1 for its ability to thwart cancer by acting on a protein named BRD4. They showed success in mice with multiple myeloma, and other groups soon reported similar findings in animal models of leukemia and lymphoma. Bradner has been downright evangelical about the drug ever since, shipping it to more than 250 labs worldwide, according to a profile of Bradner published last week in Nature.

As part of their homework in understanding the specificity of JQ1, Bradner’s group found that it also targeted a similar protein, called BRDT, which comes from a completely different chromosome than BRD4. In a quick survey of the scientific literature, Bradner noticed a study that linked mutations in BRDT to fertility problems in men, so he reached out to reproductive biologist Marty Matzuk of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to study its contraceptive effects in mice.

1 Comments

1. 1. JacobSilver 09:47 AM 8/22/12

   Cancer is a major problem in the United States. But its incidence in the United States is so much higher than it is in most other countries, and so low in east Asia, that one must conclude that lifestyle choices, particularly those of diet, of the United States must play a role. Assuming that 0.02% of the population has a genetic determinacy for cancer, the higher rate probably reflects physiological degeneration. There are about 50 things a human must take in or be exposed to for that human to function normally. These include the two essential oils, or fatty acids, Omega 3 and Omega 6. The deprivation of either of these, as well as the possible inclusion of other required things, over time, will lead to the degeneration of the human body. Cancer is one symptom of this degeneration. It takes a while to develop; that is why cancer victims tend to be older people, aside from the 0.02% who have the genetic determinacy for cancer.
   
   So, agaist cancer there is at least a question whether drugs are required. But if these drugs can help fight HIV, and can safely serve as a male contraceptive, those are the positive side of drug development.

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