$1.47 Million Granted to Research Tinnitus and Drug Research for Treatment

Research news a bit thin the past couple of months so this is welcomed news.....


December 5, 2012
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.47 million to Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in support of Alexander V. Galazyuk, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology in the NEOMED College of Medicine, for his research of tinnitus, or noise/ringing in the ears.
According to the NIDCD, in the past year, experts estimate that 22.7 million adult Americans experienced tinnitus for more than three months—about 10 percent of the adult population of the United States. Dr. Galazyuk’s research on the neural mechanisms underlying sound-evoked suppression of tinnitus is designed to improve knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for tinnitus and provide a foundation for the development of therapeutic drugs to treat tinnitus.

“Tinnitus can be suppressed briefly following the offset of an external sound through a phenomenon known as ‘residual inhibition,’ although its underlying cellular mechanism remains unknown,” said Jeffrey J. Wenstrup, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. “This new grant will allow Dr. Galazyuk to continue his research on the mechanism responsible for residual inhibition in order to identify a class of drugs that can either prolong residual inhibition or suppress tinnitus without the application of any external sounds.”

Research from Dr. Galazyuk’s lab to date has found that a loud, long-lasting sound stimulus can suppress spontaneous firing in central auditory neurons for as long as the duration of residual inhibition. Abnormally high spontaneous firing has been linked to behavioral manifestations of tinnitus; therefore, suppression of this firing is a plausible candidate for the underlying mechanism of residual inhibition. This hypothesis will be tested as part of the research supported by the NIDCD grant, of which Dr. Galazyuk has now received two installments.

“Dr. Galazyuk’s work on tinnitus is a crucial component of the University’s auditory neuroscience research focus area, which promotes excellence in hearing research as well as related disciplines such as communication, clinical audiology, clinical neuroscience and biotechnology,” said Walter E. Horton Jr., vice president for research and dean for the College of Graduate Studies at NEOMED. “His efforts, in collaboration with the other exceptional researchers in this focus area, are generating a great deal of attention and recognition of our University’s expertise in this area of research.”The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.47 million to Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in support of Alexander V. Galazyuk, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology in the NEOMED College of Medicine, for his research of tinnitus, or noise/ringing in the ears.

According to the NIDCD, in the past year, experts estimate that 22.7 million adult Americans experienced tinnitus for more than three months—about 10 percent of the adult population of the United States. Dr. Galazyuk’s research on the neural mechanisms underlying sound-evoked suppression of tinnitus is designed to improve knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for tinnitus and provide a foundation for the development of therapeutic drugs to treat tinnitus.

“Tinnitus can be suppressed briefly following the offset of an external sound through a phenomenon known as ‘residual inhibition,’ although its underlying cellular mechanism remains unknown,” said Jeffrey J. Wenstrup, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. “This new grant will allow Dr. Galazyuk to continue his research on the mechanism responsible for residual inhibition in order to identify a class of drugs that can either prolong residual inhibition or suppress tinnitus without the application of any external sounds.”
Research from Dr. Galazyuk’s lab to date has found that a loud, long-lasting sound stimulus can suppress spontaneous firing in central auditory neurons for as long as the duration of residual inhibition. Abnormally high spontaneous firing has been linked to behavioral manifestations of tinnitus; therefore, suppression of this firing is a plausible candidate for the underlying mechanism of residual inhibition. This hypothesis will be tested as part of the research supported by the NIDCD grant, of which Dr. Galazyuk has now received two installments.

“Dr. Galazyuk’s work on tinnitus is a crucial component of the University’s auditory neuroscience research focus area, which promotes excellence in hearing research as well as related disciplines such as communication, clinical audiology, clinical neuroscience and biotechnology,” said Walter E. Horton Jr., vice president for research and dean for the College of Graduate Studies at NEOMED. “His efforts, in collaboration with the other exceptional researchers in this focus area, are generating a great deal of attention and recognition of our University’s expertise in this area of research.”

Dr. Galazyuk joined the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at NEOMED in 2003. He earned a Master of Science degree in human and animal physiology from Kiev State University and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physiology from the A.A. Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, both in Kiev, Ukraine.

Dr. Galazyuk joined the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at NEOMED in 2003. He earned a Master of Science degree in human and animal physiology from Kiev State University and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physiology from the A.A. Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, both in Kiev, Ukraine.

 

Yes, Don that does sound like it. If you brain can do that even for a few seconds, why not longer?

 

I was not that familiar with Dr. Galazyuk's work, but he really knows his stuff so I am glad he is on this research with the $1.47 Million grant. Here is an article about his work with establishing the origins of tinnitus and building reliable animal models for advancement in tinnitus research.

About Dr Galazyuk, Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology
College of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Research Interests
Our research interests divide into three main areas:

1. brain mechanisms responsible for development of phantom sensation of sound or tinnitus
2. objective assessment of tinnitus in animal models and humans, and,
3. neural mechanisms underlying complex sound processing.

(1, 2) Tinnitus, the perception of a sound without an external acoustic source, is a complex perceptual phenomenon affecting approximately 17 percent of the general U.S. population, or 44 million people. Despite its ubiquity and morbidity, the pathophysiology of tinnitus is poorly understood, and there is no generally accepted cure or treatment.
In our lab we developed tinnitus mouse model where tinnitus is induced by sound exposure and assessed behaviorally. This animal model allows us to study neural mechanisms responsible for tinnitus in the brain. We are also working on improving current methods of objective tinnitus assessment in animal models and humans. In collaboration with the Akron General Hospital we are studying suppressive effects of transcranial magnetic brain stimulation on tinnitus in humans.
(3) Another focus of our research is on neuronal mechanisms underlying processing of complex sounds by neurons in the auditory system. We use a wide variety of neurophysiological approaches in our work including extracellular as well as intracellular recording from unanesthetized animals and iontophoretic drug delivery to recorded neurons.