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Parsing the potential of a new male contraceptive

Nature Medicine volume 18, pages 1466–1467 (2012)Cite this article

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Debra J Wolgemuth

As the world's population continues to soar, readily available and acceptable contraceptives are essential to reduce population growth in developing countries and to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality arising from unintended pregnancies in all countries. Although male contraception is an essential component of worldwide reproductive health, few approaches other than barrier methods have been adequately developed. The recent study by Matzuk et al.2 reports a new pharmacological strategy that inhibits the double bromodomain-containing BET proteins and disrupts spermatogenesis—importantly, in a reversible manner. The investigators were guided in their search for such druggable targets by earlier studies demonstrating that genetic ablation of a portion of the testis-specific member of the BET family, BRDT, resulted in complete male sterility with gross morphological defects in the spermatids from the mutant mice (BRDTΔBD1 mice)3. The importance of BRDT in spermatogenesis has been further underscored in very recent studies reporting even more severe defects in male germ cells from mice completely lacking Brdt protein1.

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Competing interests

D.A.G. serves as a consultant to Bayer and Merck. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Parsing the potential of a new male contraceptive. Nat Med 18, 1466–1467 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2970

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