A dangerous toxin isolated from poison, which Africans greased arrows for hunting, can become the first contraceptive for men in history.
Thus, the drug can be attributed to cardiac glycosides, herbal preparations, which in microscopic doses can reduce the manifestations of heart failure and arrhythmia.
Judging by the results of new experiments by researchers from the US and Canada, this possibility is still preserved.
The authors used male laboratory rats, as well as a number of potentially interesting artificial analogs of ouabain - only slightly modified toxin molecules. Their goal was to search for a substance that would selectively act only on a special kind of ion pump, working only in the beating flagella of spermatozoa.
Indeed, among dozens of drugs tested by scientists, one (with the replacement of the lactone group at the C17 atom by benzotriazole) demonstrated excellent selectivity. He completely suppressed the mobility of spermatozoa and made males sterile, without having a noticeable effect on their cardiovascular system.