1. Médecine
  2. Human Reproduction
  3. EN
  4. Activities
  5. Male fertility
  6. male project 4

Pharmacological protection against chemotherapy damage

Thanks to the very encouraging results obtained in the ovary using miRNA therapeutics in the reproduction lab, we aim now to develop this innovative alternative to protect the testis and its immature germ cells from the deleterious effects of chemotherapeutic agents.

Non-invasive pharmacological protection of spermatogenic cells would represent a breakthrough improvement to preserve fertility for a number of patients, especially prepubertal boys, where sperm banking is not an option.
The therapeutic strategy envisage microRNA (miRNA) as pharmacological tools to protect germ cells from cell arrest and apoptosis. To date, the expression of miRNAs during spermatogenesis has been poorly studied and only the effect of Doxorubicin partially evaluated.

The laboratory is working on this project in collaboration with Prof. Gilles Bruylants from the Engineering of molecular Nanosystems Laboratory (Brussels School of Engineering, ULB) in order to develop an appropriate miRNA delivery system for in vivo studies.