A Cocktail-Inspired Male Birth Control Strategy with Physical/Chemical Dual Contraceptive Effects and Remote Self-Cleared Properties

Inspired by cocktails, we designed a medium term (2-20 weeks) male contraceptive strategy. Through a sequential injection process of four reagents (calcium alginate hydrogel, PEG-Au nanoparticles (PEG-AuNps), EDTA, and PEG-AuNps), physical clogging of the vas deferens and chemical inhibition of the sperm motility were realized simultaneously. The contraceptive period could be directly preset by adjusting the injection ratio of each reagent. More interesting, the embolism area could be readily dredged through a short-time noninvasive near-infrared irradiation. The present study offered an effective and reversible manner to fill the gap of current medium-term contraceptive strategy. In addition, the proposed in vivo pipeline plugging technology, with a flexible noninvasive self-cleared characteristic, might also provide a convenient and reliable strategy for some other biomedical engineering researches.