Inhibiting Human Lactate Dehydrogenase-C for Male Fertility Control; Initial Hits

 Lactate dehydrogenase-C (LDH-C) is an oxido-reductive enzyme of LDH (EC 1.1.1.27) family which is present abundantly in testes, spermatocytes, spermatids and sperms. It plays an important role in maintaining glycolysis and ATP production in the flagellum during sperm capacitation, therefore essential for male fertility. Profuse expression exclusively in these tissues makes LDH-C a potential target for male contraceptive development. However, creating a specific inhibitor for LDH-C is challenging due to its extensive sequence similarity (84-89%) with somatic isozymes LDH-A and B.