Cilcare's CIL001 Targets Cochlear Synaptopathy — An American/French Collaboration

[Fra]

It seems like the issue with the viral vector has now been resolved.

Is there any published paper that details the resolution of the viral vector issue?

 

[Josh-mh]

I am very interested in how Cilcare will be testing for cochlear synaptopathy outside of speech-in-noise tests and ABRs. I believe they are working on a way to test for this alongside their regenerative therapies.

 

[LovableGamer]

Hey, I just wanted to ask if there have been any updates on when the trials are starting. I believe it should be soon. I really hope I can join because of my hearing loss and tinnitus. I am hoping they will begin those groups early next year. If anyone has any information, please let me know. Thank you!

 

[ploughna]

On the topic of drug delivery through the round window discussed earlier in this thread, this is pretty interesting:

Cilcare launches a groundbreaking 3D Bioprinting Project with human cells to advance therapies for hearing disorders - Cilcare

€40 million series A completed to accelerate development of innovative treatments for early hearing loss

www.cilcare.com

 

[LovableGamer]

On the topic of drug delivery through the round window discussed earlier in this thread, this is pretty interesting:

Cilcare launches a groundbreaking 3D Bioprinting Project with human cells to advance therapies for hearing disorders - Cilcare

€40 million series A completed to accelerate development of innovative treatments for early hearing loss

www.cilcare.com

Awesome find! I really hope this leads to faster and smoother progress in research and treatment.

 

[JJL]

I have been in contact with the researcher; however, I'm a little reluctant. Intratympanic injections are no longer seen as the best route to the cochlea. All trials using this method have failed, with companies often blaming the lack of permeability.

Many institutions are now moving away from this approach and have discovered new proprietary routes.

Hi @Nick47, what are the new proprietary routes to get access to the cochlea?

 

[ploughna]

An interesting watch:

 

[Joeseph Stope]

An interesting watch:

Really good video, but many of us cannot listen to the sound due to Hyperacusis.

I wonder if there is a transcript that covers the basics. The subtitles are too small and move too quickly. Maybe I should get a magnifying glass.

It is great to hear that something else is on the way. If Auricle does not work for me, Cilcare might.

 

[Emao]

Transcript of the video is available here:

https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=S7W_3aDUmCk&current_language_code=en

 

[Joeseph Stope]

Transcript of the video is available here:

https://youtubetotranscript.com/transcript?v=S7W_3aDUmCk&current_language_code=en

This looks very promising.

 

[Fields]

Off-topic, but it doesn't really warrant its own thread, I think:

Japanese scientists have found a way to naturally grow new teeth

Medical innovations like these provide me with some hope that eventually we'll also crack the code for hearing-related issues—possibly via CILCARE.

 

[Kemper]

Researchers keep a mammalian cochlea alive outside the body for the first time

This technological breakthrough may improve our understanding of the cellular mechanisms behind hearing and its loss, which remain poorly understood.

www.eurekalert.org

 

[Joeseph Stope]

Researchers keep a mammalian cochlea alive outside the body for the first time

This technological breakthrough may improve our understanding of the cellular mechanisms behind hearing and its loss, which remain poorly understood.

www.eurekalert.org

This looks like a goldmine.

For those of us who are not very scientific, the overall picture is beginning to emerge. Very often the source of our tinnitus and hearing loss lies in the cochlea, but it can also reside in the brain, or in both the cochlea and brain together.

In the search for a pharmaceutical or genetic remedy, one major problem is delivering the treatment to the correct location, the actual site of the injury. The difficulty lies in the fact that the cochlea is the hardest bone in the body, and its location close to the brain makes it hard to access and observe.

If what I read in Kemper's link above is true, then delivering the medication and observing its effect over time should be straightforward.

This would allow researchers to adjust and refine the therapies while monitoring the effects in real time.

If you want to be cured, it might even help if you were a bullfrog.

In one of my long posts from a while back, I shared my struggle with taking care of a plant. I gave it plenty of sunlight and water, but it did not thrive. It turned out to be a desert plant that lives in a cave. Too much sunlight and too much water were not what it needed.

 

[Joeseph Stope]

Some more Euphoria for all of yous:

A “Masterpiece” – For the First Time, Scientists Keep a Mammalian Cochlea Alive Outside the Body

Researchers have captured the living mechanics of hearing for the first time by sustaining a piece of cochlear tissue outside the body. Shortly before his death in August 2025, A. James Hudspeth and his colleagues at The Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience accomplished a m

scitechdaily.com

It's pretty much the same as in the link that @ploughna gave, but with the details explained more clearly for the layman.

It appears that after some work with bullfrogs, which are also vertebrates with a backbone, the scientists turned their attention to gerbils. These are small pet rodents, similar to guinea pigs or mice, that live across Asia and Africa. Why? Because their hearing range is similar to ours.

gerbil what is - Bing

Mit der intelligenten Bing-Suche können Sie die gewünschten Informationen schneller und einfacher finden und dabei Punkte sammeln.

www.bing.com

Of course, the scientific community deserves some applause too. But if you were to tell "Joe Soap" about the breakthrough of creating a living cochlea outside the body, I'm sure his reply would be, "Duh… what's a cochlea? Why didn't they just leave it inside the body?"

Before I got my tinnitus, I had never registered what the cochlea actually is either. So we have to enjoy the breakthrough with a kind of quiet excitement, celebrating privately or among fellow sufferers.

In my opinion, the solution will probably come from a combination of research on the cochlea side of things and research on the brain side of things. But I'm not a scientist, unless you count diplomas and degrees and all that.

A new avenue of research has opened, and we will now be able to see what is going on. No more problems with accessing through the round window or intratympanic methods. Just apply the medicaments and observe what happens.

I only hope it will not be too expensive to get more cochleae up and running.

 

[Hyperacusis]

Hi everyone,

Will someone here be a candidate to test this drug? I hesitate, because I am afraid it might make my hyperacusis worse. On the other hand, I cannot live like a hermit until 2030 when this drug will be available on the market.

 

[Joeseph Stope]

While we are awaiting the launch of Dr. Susan Shore's device, it might help pass the time to speculate on how Rockefeller University will make use of this ex vivo living gerbil cochlea.

a) They could test some of the earlier small molecules that were used by Otonomy and Frequency Therapeutics. If they work, then they work. The only real challenge would be delivery, perhaps.

b) In my view, it might also be worthwhile to see how Mother Nature does it. I have heard that birds, fish, and some mammals can rejuvenate dead or damaged hair cells, though I am not sure what happens with gerbils. If we could learn how birds and fish do it, then perhaps it could be tried on gerbils. Somewhere I seem to recall reading that infant mice or rats can repair damaged hair cells, though I cannot remember the source.

I find the mechanics of all this fascinating. For instance, the organ of balance lies below the cochlea, and when its hair cells are damaged—as can happen with older people—they tend to topple over more often. Inner hair cells, as I have read, are responsible for hearing and hearing loss. What about the outer hair cells and the stereocilia? What is the indication when they are dead or damaged?

The entire cochlea, shaped like a spiral shell, can be mapped onto a piano keyboard, with the lower notes at the apex (the innermost point of the shell) and the higher notes at the entry. And of course, it is not just the notes, but all the frequencies in between.

Fascinating stuff. If the scientific community finds it as fascinating as I do, then I believe they will come up with answers promptly.

 

[LovableGamer]

There seems to be so much to hope for. I truly hope we get something soon. It would be helpful for millions of people.

 

[Swift4]

I can't wait for the day my hearing is fully restored I will be crying so much.

 

[ThomasF]

Off-topic, but it doesn't really warrant its own thread, I think:

Japanese scientists have found a way to naturally grow new teeth

Medical innovations like these provide me with some hope that eventually we'll also crack the code for hearing-related issues—possibly via CILCARE.

If new teeth can be grown, including the nerve and everything, doesn't that mean other nerve cells could also be regrown?

 

[Joeseph Stope]

First living cochlea outside the body shows how hearing really works

Some more euphoria for you all.

Why am I bringing this up again? Well, I think those first in line for the euphoria are the scientific community, audiologists and researchers in particular. The breakthrough is bound to trickle down to us mere mortals suffering from tinnitus sooner or later.

Another important point is the very fact that this breakthrough is being reported across several scientific journals and websites, which shows it's no mere "pie in the sky."

The hope, of course, is that by making the inner workings of the cochlea visible, researchers will gain a deeper understanding of the hearing system. One thing that especially intrigues me is that we might finally find the answer to which types of tinnitus and hyperacusis patients would benefit from exposure to everyday loud noises, and which patients would be better off living a more sheltered life, far from the madding crowd.

I'll be as happy as the next person to discover whether I have synapse damage, inner hair cell damage, outer hair cell damage, or stereocilia damage— and of course, how to cure them.

I also hope this breakthrough might make large-scale placebo-controlled trials a thing of the past. One glance at the cochlea might be enough to tell whether a medication works. That, at least, would be a big saving on funds.

 

[LovableGamer]

First living cochlea outside the body shows how hearing really works

Some more euphoria for you all.

Why am I bringing this up again? Well, I think those first in line for the euphoria are the scientific community, audiologists and researchers in particular. The breakthrough is bound to trickle down to us mere mortals suffering from tinnitus sooner or later.

Another important point is the very fact that this breakthrough is being reported across several scientific journals and websites, which shows it's no mere "pie in the sky."

The hope, of course, is that by making the inner workings of the cochlea visible, researchers will gain a deeper understanding of the hearing system. One thing that especially intrigues me is that we might finally find the answer to which types of tinnitus and hyperacusis patients would benefit from exposure to everyday loud noises, and which patients would be better off living a more sheltered life, far from the madding crowd.

I'll be as happy as the next person to discover whether I have synapse damage, inner hair cell damage, outer hair cell damage, or stereocilia damage— and of course, how to cure them.

I also hope this breakthrough might make large-scale placebo-controlled trials a thing of the past. One glance at the cochlea might be enough to tell whether a medication works. That, at least, would be a big saving on funds.

I really hope this will help bring treatments out soon. It would certainly make things easier if scientists could see the cochlea itself and work directly with it.

 

[delta784]

First living cochlea outside the body shows how hearing really works

Some more euphoria for you all.

Why am I bringing this up again? Well, I think those first in line for the euphoria are the scientific community, audiologists and researchers in particular. The breakthrough is bound to trickle down to us mere mortals suffering from tinnitus sooner or later.

Another important point is the very fact that this breakthrough is being reported across several scientific journals and websites, which shows it's no mere "pie in the sky."

The hope, of course, is that by making the inner workings of the cochlea visible, researchers will gain a deeper understanding of the hearing system. One thing that especially intrigues me is that we might finally find the answer to which types of tinnitus and hyperacusis patients would benefit from exposure to everyday loud noises, and which patients would be better off living a more sheltered life, far from the madding crowd.

I'll be as happy as the next person to discover whether I have synapse damage, inner hair cell damage, outer hair cell damage, or stereocilia damage— and of course, how to cure them.

I also hope this breakthrough might make large-scale placebo-controlled trials a thing of the past. One glance at the cochlea might be enough to tell whether a medication works. That, at least, would be a big saving on funds.

Thanks, but it's so far away. I don't think I have the courage to stay that long.

 

[Swift4]

Thanks, but it's so far away. I don't think I have the courage to stay that long.

I feel that we just have to keep moving, bro. There's surely a light at the end of the tunnel.

First living cochlea outside the body shows how hearing really works

Some more euphoria for you all.

Why am I bringing this up again? Well, I think those first in line for the euphoria are the scientific community, audiologists and researchers in particular. The breakthrough is bound to trickle down to us mere mortals suffering from tinnitus sooner or later.

Another important point is the very fact that this breakthrough is being reported across several scientific journals and websites, which shows it's no mere "pie in the sky."

The hope, of course, is that by making the inner workings of the cochlea visible, researchers will gain a deeper understanding of the hearing system. One thing that especially intrigues me is that we might finally find the answer to which types of tinnitus and hyperacusis patients would benefit from exposure to everyday loud noises, and which patients would be better off living a more sheltered life, far from the madding crowd.

I'll be as happy as the next person to discover whether I have synapse damage, inner hair cell damage, outer hair cell damage, or stereocilia damage— and of course, how to cure them.

I also hope this breakthrough might make large-scale placebo-controlled trials a thing of the past. One glance at the cochlea might be enough to tell whether a medication works. That, at least, would be a big saving on funds.

This is actually awesome. Hopefully, we get more news soon. We really need a cure, it's been far too long.

 

[Vincent R]

Thanks, but it's so far away. I don't think I have the courage to stay that long.

Life is like being inside a room with only one door. Eventually, we'll open that door and step out. So why rush something that draws closer with every passing second?