Hough Ear Institute's Hair Cell Regeneration Project

I uh... Wasn't worried but thanks for your concern though, and that's good because no one wants to take a pill for the rest of their life because of tinnitus.

 

Would stopping it mean any benefits would be lost?

 

To be honest, if they had a pill I could take every day of my life that would nullify my tinnitus, I would not mind. True, this would be a treatment, and not a cure but there are a lot of things there are not a cure for, like high blood pressure. If only we had something similar.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't think so.

 

I would, but maybe mine is different than yours. I’m emailing every legislator in my state for funding this problem through VA.

 

How credible are the Hough Ear Institute?

I'm prepared to donate.

 

No one truly knows. We can assume good things with its representative boldly coming to Tinnitus Talk. The ATA needs to knock on Hough Ear Institute's door and see what’s going on.

 

Very I would say.

 

Great news!

Q: There are people with hearing loss that don't suffer with tinnitus. Please can HEI comment.

 

I certainly would even if I don't necessarily want to, and many of us are accustomed to taking medication or optional supplements every day anyway. I've been taking a beta-blocker every day for a quarter-century to calm heart arrhythmia and in order to have a normal life, that is not optional.

I think for most the issue would be cost.

 

I’m a tad bit confused and maybe Justin or someone else could clear this up.

The reduction in tinnitus has so far only been shown in their animal models correct? During the phase 1 safety trial did any people report a reduction in their tinnitus (of course assuming any of the participants had it)?

 

I've still been in contact with Justin.

The pill was shown to cure tinnitus in animal models. It was shown as safe for humans in phase 1. No info regarding its efficacy is released on that, as the study is only designed to check safety. No bias can be made for future trials. They all do it this way.

And, tinnitus has been "cured" in animals by several companies in the game. It does not mean it translates to humans. New info will be coming out in about a month or so I believe. Things are on track. That's all I know, and all they're willing to divulge at this point.

 

I trust Tinnitus Talk way more than the ATA. Has the ATA been beneficial in any way ever?

 

This is great!

I think the main questions to cover:

- funding, i.e. where is it going to come from
- possibility of doing trials in Europe and teaming up with European company
- exact timeline of getting onto the market
- effectiveness of pill/drugs, i.e. percent chance of effectiveness and based on what
- does the pill/drug need to be taken regularly to work
- how it is better than its competitors
- reasons they are so enthusiastic and sure their pill/drugs will work
- which tinnitus sufferers it will help and which it won't (noise, ototoxic reaction, disease etc)
- possible side effects and interactions with other medication
- method of delivery
- availability of drug/pill if approved, i.e. I can see the military getting first dibs on it
- how much will the pill/drug cost for the patient
- can all Tinnitus Talk members get in on the trials or have a first go on the pill/drug

 

With regards to delivery method, I would be interested in answers to the following questions:

1. Do have intratympanic injections have drawbacks in terms of getting the right concentration, duration and localization of the drug in the inner ear?

2. Do they agree that low frequency hearing loss and tinnitus will be particularly hard to treat, since intratympanic injections are known for not/hardly being able to get the drug to the apex of the cochlea?

3. What are their thoughts on new delivery methods to overcome the above menioned problems with intratympanic injections, like intracochlear injections or nanoparticle delivery (Otomagnetics, Bionics Institute)?

I’d also like their thoughts on the lack of diagnostic tools for the inner ear. A lot of attention goes to therapeutics, and that’s understandable. But aren’t better diagnostic tools, like new imaging technologies and extraction of inner ear fluid, also needed to better help patients? What new developments are they seeing in that regard, if any?

 

I wonder if they would use something like ethyl alcohol to increase the permeability of the RWM. I am also struggling to understand how they could possibly improve imaging technologies. To simply see hair cells you need an electron microscope. MRIs don't have resolutions to see that kind of detail and they are dangerously loud. Any imaging technology to peer into the in situ cochlea would have applications far beyond just hearing. It would revolutionize medicine.

 

Do you know what new info it might be?

 

Ethyl alcohol has been shown to be ototoxic in Guinea Pigs.

 

Some excellent questions in this thread. I only have these two to add:

1) A lot of regeneration trials exclude a history of ototoxicity. Is this because ototoxins are heterogeneous and they want to remove a diverse variable or because damage occurs in a more irreversible way?

2) Dr. Kopke co-authored a paper showing how antioxidant treatment in chinchillas rescues synapses in the DCN soon after noise trauma as well as the cochlea. Is it suspected this will also help more chronic cases?

 

Knowing my luck it will be the latter.

 

What ototoxic drug did you have to take?

 

I do not. I was told to hang tight, and that it's good news. We'll see.

 

Gene expression of ATOH138 has been shown to influence cell differentiation bird cochlea, and has been shown to be effective to regenerate hair cells in mice. Does the Hough method have anything to do with the retinoic acid pathway or ATOH138?

 

I think that in humans the gene is just ATOH1.....

 

@Justin De Moss

Hi Justin,

I have a question regarding your nerve fiber regeneration (or it could be a question for the podcast - either way). Do you know if the regeneration occurred along both the peripheral axons and peripheral terminals? Did one regenerate more fully than the other or was there virtually no difference and you saw substantial recovery in both areas.

 

I have difficulty believing that a “pill” will have the efficacy for the ear, which has little blood flow as it is.

Also, what else would the pill affect... kidneys, liver, etc.

An injection seems more reasonable in my opinion.

And yes, I would take a pill every day forever if it ended this... I’m already taking NAC, B complex, Magnesium... etc etc etc every darn day.

 

Would it not be the brain that is targeted with this pill though? As long as there are no side effects taking a pill everyday for me would be the same as a cure.

 

You could be right, I’m not that familiar with what this drug specifically... I was speaking in generalities. Having any compound diffuse in the body to target a specific part requires the rest of the body to deal with the drug as well.

If there are no side effects, that would be good. I was just thinking if someone takes an antibiotic, for example... for some people it treats the bacterial infection while also killing the good bacteria in the gut.

 

Well, the pill isnt targeting the brain “per se”. It’s targeting cochlear synaptopathy. The key point being when the synapse is regenerated (from the pill) the spiral ganglion neurons send out new nerve fibers to reattach to the synapse and establish meaningful connections.

The brain is only targeted in so far as that if the nerve fibers are now generating non-dysfunctional signals the hope is that as the signal travels through the cochlear nerve to the DCN, then ICN, etc all the way to the auditory cortext that these brain structures will adjust their output accordingly to the now functional signal, thereby eliminating or reducing tinnitus.

Right now we can’t speak to it’s efficacy in humans. Efficacy has only been demonstrated in their animal models so far.

Phase 1 has shown it to be safe so far. But as to whether or not we’d have to take the pill long term remains to be seen. My gut says no, because once you regenerate the nerves there’s not much else that needs to be done, at least from what I think. Could be wrong tho.