ArticleeLife2020
A phenotypic screening platform utilising human spermatozoa identifies compounds with contraceptive activity.
Article in eLife, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- A phenotypicHuman reproduction open · 2026Article
- Article
- PSA inhibitors for contraception: insights from prostate cancer.Trends in pharmacological sciences · 2025Review
- Human sperm as an in vitro toxicity model: a versatile tool for assessing the risk of environmental contaminants.Archives of toxicology · 2025Article
- Frequency, morbidity and equity - the case for increased research on male fertility.Nature reviews. Urology · 2024Review
- Article
- Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Elevated and Sustained Intracellular Calcium Signalling Is Necessary for Efficacious Induction of the Human Sperm Acrosome Reaction.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Compounds enhancing human sperm motility identified using a high-throughput phenotypic screening platform.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- Sperm ion channels and transporters in male fertility and infertility.Nature reviews. Urology · 2021Review
- Stopping sperm in their tracks.eLife · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is an urgent need to develop new methods for male contraception, however a major barrier to drug discovery has been the lack of validated targets and the absence of an effective high-throughput phenotypic screening system. To address this deficit, we developed a fully-automated robotic screening platform that provided quantitative evaluation of compound activity against two key attributes of human sperm function: motility and acrosome reaction. In order to accelerate contraceptive development, we screened the comprehensive collection of 12,000 molecules that make up the ReFRAME repurposing library, comprising nearly all the small molecules that have been approved or have undergone clinical development, or have significant preclinical profiling. We identified several compounds that potently inhibit motility representing either novel drug candidates or routes to target identification. This platform will now allow for major drug discovery programmes that address the critical gap in the contraceptive portfolio as well as uncover novel human sperm biology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.