PNAs: UC Berkeley scientists discover a new way of molecular birth control

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that lupeol and pristimerin, two compounds, can inhibit sperm from swinging its tail, preventing it from swimming and binding to the egg Professor Polina lishko, a member of the research team, said that the two compounds have the effect of "molecular condom", which can work as long as a small dose, and are suitable for both men and women, with almost no side effects Relevant research results "regulation of the sperm computation channel CatSper by endogenousteroids and plant tripleoids" were published online in proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Source: in a recently published paper by Getty Images, UC Berkeley's scientists showed how chemicals extracted from plants can make sperm lose the ability to penetrate into the egg cell: sperm has a special calcium channel, known as the "CatSper channel" When the CatSper channel is opened, calcium ions will enter the sperm tail, thus promoting the tail to enter an overactive movement mode When the sperm approached the egg, the activity of the CatSper channel increased significantly after contacting the female progesterone To prevent sperm from spiraling at the end of their journey, scientists tested and screened a variety of chemicals At last, they found that the damage effect of lupitol and celangulin was the best Lupitol and platyphyllin do not damage the basic activity of sperm They are harmless to sperm cells Sperm can still swim, but they can't swing the tail effectively, because the whole intensification channel is closed At present, the team is using the sperm of primates to test the effect of this "molecular condom" They hope to be able to use the two chemicals to make emergency contraceptives or long-term contraceptives However, the biggest obstacle to this method is the high cost of manufacturing Scientists have to find the economic way to extract these two chemicals in large quantities Lupin alcohol is found in the epidermis of lupin seeds, in the latex of fig trees and rubber plants, and in fruits and vegetables such as grapes, olives and cabbage, but the content is very low Platyphyllin is relatively uncommon, mainly in a plant called Tripterygium wilfordii Tripterygium wilfordii is often used in the treatment of tuberculosis and rheumatoid arthritis, but it is a highly toxic drug In view of the low cost performance of the compounds extracted from the above plants, the research team tried to screen out cheap triterpenoids Paper link: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/05/09/1700367114 Full? Sid = 17105b68-30fc-4872-aab3-2a940e6d60f5