Potential New Contraceptive That Uses Antibodies Against Sperm Developed By Researchers
IFLScience – by Alfredo Carpineti
A team from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Californian company ZabBio have developed an intriguing new contraceptive. The birth control method is a film that is dissolved in the vagina and it is rich in monoclonal antibodies that can attack a particular protein found in sperm.
The approach is certainly astounding – but, as reported in the journal EBioMedicine, it has only been confirmed in the lab. That said, the results are certainly promising. The Human Contraception Antibody (HCA) appears to be safe and possesses potent sperm agglutination capacity (it basically made it clump up).
The topical method was able to stop sperm at a quite low concentration too. It was able to immobilize sperm within 15 seconds – again, this was conducted in vitro, but with real sperm from volunteers.
The antibodies reacted to a specific protein called CD52g which is abundantly found in sperm. Laboratory tests on tissue similar to vaginal tissue show no inflammation due to the use of HCA.
Full article available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/potential-new-contraceptive-that-uses-antibodies-against-sperm-developed-by-researchers/