Deaf People Get Gene Tweak to Restore Natural Hearing

Its all these treatments coming together at the same time that has me excited.Haircell regeneration is starting trials now and we can only hope that things pan out also you have Autifony conducting trials now which takes care of the brain side of things and then VNS therapy also.Ive also read that auditory nerve fibers have been successfully regenerated in the mammalion ear and haven spoken to a few professors about this confirms that it is true.Out of all the nasty conditions out there we should be counting our blessings because at the moment it appears that a cure for T and H or the likes may actually just be possible and in the near future at that.As a professor once said to me the eye and the ear are actually very simple organs....its their interaction with the brain that makes them so complicated....

 

wow!..it sounds like we are in 2099

 

when the hearing disorder and T caused by a problem in the outer or middle ear; after problem is solved tinnitus is mostly solved..Therefore they think why not for inner ear after restroration..

 

Hi,
in lab and trials they could already do a lot.
But the biggest problem might be to gain
regeneration in ADULT cochlea.
And it's very interesting if there is regeneration and proper connection,
if this cells stay there for a long time.
The participants in the trial will be monitored during 5 years.

 

Wow.. Just wow! Amazing research. Let's hope for amazing results to!

 

Could T suffers benefit from regeneration of hair cells ?

http://www.newscientist.com/article...-to-restore-natural-hearing.html#.U3SdzPJOWgw

 

It could be possible. As Tomytl stated above, if hearing loss can be cured, you will AT LEAST see a reduction in Tinnitus loudness. Also stated by MattK, tinnitus can be cured once the underlying cause for Tinnitus is fixed which is what I believe as well. Plus there are so many more drugs in development right now.

 

I would say, we really don't know what hair cell research will bring to us as long we don't know it
from a human trial. The first is ahead, Novartis will start soon with the first hair cell regenertion
trial in patients. What they expect is described in this article:
https://pioneersresearch.org/node/182

 

Agreed. This article does say that the exclusion criteria is that people born deaf, or hearing loss due to mechanical damage, will not be able to participate. This kind of hints towards the treatment being geared towards people with noise induced hearing loss and ototoxicity. This will be an amazing breakthrough in science if it's successful.

 

Another article which explains the trial with some additional info:
http://360translations.com/gene-therapy-for-treating-deafness/

 

I love that this is taking place in the midwest US. Take that east coast and west coast!

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229662.400-deaf-people-get-gene-tweak-to-restore-natural-hea

People who have lost their hearing will be injected with a harmless virus carrying a gene that should trigger the regrowth of their ears’ sensory receptors

IN TWO months' time, a group of profoundly deaf people could be able to hear again, thanks to the world's first gene therapy trial for deafness.

The volunteers, who lost their hearing through damage or disease, will get an injection of a harmless virus containing a gene that should trigger the regrowth of the sensory receptors in the ear.

The idea is that the method will return a more natural sense of hearing than other technologies can provide. Hearing aids merely amplify sounds, while cochlear implants transform sound waves into electrical waves that the brain interprets, but they don't pick up all of the natural frequencies. This means people can find it difficult to distinguish many of the nuances in voices and music.

"The holy grail is to give people natural hearing back," says Hinrich Staecker at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who is leading the trial. "That's what we hope to do – we are essentially repairing the ear rather than artificially imitating what it does."

There are still many things we don't know about how the ear works. This is because the delicate machinery of the inner ear is enclosed in the hardest bone in the body, making it difficult to isolate without causing damage.

What we do know is that sound waves are funnelled into the ear, making the ear drum vibrate. These vibrations are transferred to the cochlea in the inner ear via three tiny bones. Thousands of sensory receptors line a part of the cochlea called the organ of Corti, as rows of inner and outer hair cells. Sound waves, amplified by the outer hair cells (shown above right), vibrate the inner hair cells, opening ion channels on their surface that let neurotransmitters flow in. This triggers electrical activity in the cochlear neurons, passing the information to the brain so it can be processed.

Both inner and outer hair cells can be damaged by loud noises, drugs such as some antibiotics and disease, and don't regrow. A possible fix arose in 2003, when researchers discovered that certain genes can transform the cellssupporting the hair cells into both types of hair cell.

To see whether one of these genes, called Atoh1, could be used to improve hearing, last year Staecker and colleagues inserted it into a harmless virus and injected that into the cochlea of mice that had had almost all of their hair cells destroyed. Two months later, the rodents' hearing had improved by about 20 decibels. "This is about the same difference between hearing with your hands over your ears, and what you hear ordinarily," says Lloyd Klickstein, head of translational medicine at Novartis, the Swiss drug company collaborating on the trial.

Staecker's team have now got the go-ahead to do the same in people. In the next month, they will begin searching for about 45 volunteers who have severe hearing loss, most likely caused by the side effects of drugs. This group will have lost a large number of hair cells, but will still have supporting structures, such as neurons, present in the inner ear. "The biggest risk is that we interfere with residual hearing, so we're starting with people who have lost almost all hearing already," says Klickstein.

People between the ages of 18 and 70 will be eligible for the trial. Those who are born deaf won't be because they often don't have the structures needed to support hair cells. Staecker estimates that the approach could help 1 to 2 per cent of all people with hearing loss, up to 7 million people in the US.

Sticking plasters
The trial will start at the University of Kansas Medical School before being widened to other institutions. As with the mice, the team will inject the viral gene package directly into the volunteers' cochlea by peeling back their ear drum and passing a needle through a tiny hole made by a laser (see diagram). The Atoh1 gene should reach the supporting cells, instructing them to divide and form new hair cells. Results are expected between two weeks and two months later.

"Today's medical treatments are largely limited to hearing aids and cochlear implants, which are essentially just sticking plasters," says Ralph Holme, head of biomedical research at UK charity Action on Hearing Loss. "This is why the planned trial is extremely encouraging and offers hope to the millions affected by hearing loss that a cure is possible."

Jeffrey Holt at Harvard Medical School, who isn't involved in the trial, calls it ground-breaking and says he is cautiously optimistic about the work. "Hopes are high that the trial will yield positive results without introducing unnecessary complications."

The only expected side effect is a brief period of dizziness or nausea, a common occurrence after ear surgery. In pre-clinical tests, Novartis researchers looked to see if the virus spread to any other tissues, but found it was restricted to the site of injection. It has also been designed to have limited potential to recombine with the volunteer's DNA so it is unlikely to cause problems elsewhere.

Many other species, such as fish and birds, can regenerate the hair cells in their inner ear over time and create new auditory circuits, says Klickstein. "We're just trying to tweak the mammalian system a little bit to do what a lot of other species do naturally".

 

Great News Thanks Danny for posting this.

 

Please fix my genes lol

 

the link seems dead

i ve googled it ,it seems an article of april 2014 but not available on their site

 

this is the most recent link
http://targear.eu/notch-inhibition-...lian-cochleae-via-activating-the-wnt-pathway/

But my question is :

If we regenerate cells, does tinnitus disappear?

 

theorically it should.
As they seems to believe tinnitus is due to nerve firing signals because of lack of signals coming from the dead hair cells.
basically tinnitus= hearing losses and hearing losses mean nerves creating phantom noise to compensate inactivity of hair cells.
So if hair cells become active again then no phantom noise anymore

I hope it it ll be applicable soon to tinnitus sufferers

btw the article you posted is not talking about the trial but another discovery on the same field

 

I got mild hearing loss in one ear and moderate in other when i was young from illness and got no tinnitus.
I think that tinnitus comes from short circuit in auditory nerve. Becouse auditory nerve is two way electrical cable, in one way there is electricity current made by hair cells and in reverse way brain sends signals to control and amplifing outer hair cells (this is where otoacustic emissions come from). So basically noise induced tinnitus mostly happens in healthy ear where too much sound make lot of electricity from lot of hair cells and that amount of electricity burns auditory nerve pathways and can create infinite loop when out and in signals get connected(short circuit)

 

thank you for informations

this therapy (stemcells) is the most promising but it's not for tommorow.

 

People deserve more options than hearing aids and cochlear implants. Hopefully its a step in the right direction.

 

Modern medical science is rapidly moving forward. I'm reading lots of promise for the future. I like what I am reading. Gives me hope that I didn't have for the last 25 years. I have tinnitus for 25 years and in my 11th month of my third relapse. Holding on, usually takes 12-18 months to adjust to the new sound. God bless.

 

Two things:
1. (Champ) I read something at work @1996/7 showing how a human ear was shaped in a mold and cow cartilage was use to create it. It was weird and looked like an ear (it was grafted on to the mouse) skin covered it (albeit fairly transparent).
2. Many of those of the Deaf culture (as in born deaf and that's their life) will create interesting opposition to this. Science, hearing people and anti-deaf people will be said to have degraded their culture (again). They believe there is nothing wrong with being Deaf. Since I've joined both worlds, I feel like Borg (Star Trek) and yes, young children who can hear have many more opportunities (especially in this weird economy) than Deaf kids do. They did get their hearing president removed from her position at Gallaudet University removed from her post.
-- I presented the thing about the Deaf culture because I've been part of it and fairly rapidly (lol) removed myself from the hardcore believers. But they count... they just don't have a big enough voice.

 

Well, at least we know, tinnitus will be cured very soon..We get a treatment to lower it until this comes out! Awesomeness!

 

Ive been saying that all along. Just some relief without the hideous side effects would be a god send!

 

I know...I'd rather not take trobalt, but what can I do?

 

How did the human trials go?

 

That's an interesting theory. Where did you read about it?

 

just my amateur theory, but there are definitely more casues of tinnitus, this may be just one of them.
One other theory which i think could be cause of hearing loss type tinnitus is when brain tries to substitue missing sounds

 

I hope those guys make better new trobalt that is without side effects and possibly can be taken on higher dosage.

 

Christian78 you are right !