Episode 20: The Man Who Donated a Million Dollars to Tinnitus Research

Through half of the podcast I heard Dr. Hamid Djalilian say that sometimes the hair cell is intact, but the nerve endings have disconnected to the hair call.

Here's a question being answered about if it's enough to regenerate hair cells to get hearing back, and if other things such as the nerve cells also have to be fixed:

Hearing Health Hour Webinar | The Present and Future of Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration

Hearing Health Hour Webinar | The Present and...

Lisa Goodrich who's lab mostly focuses on the auditory nerve:

”…we have thought a long time about how the hair cells are innervated by the spiral ganglion neurons.”

”In a mouse where you can create a hair cell where their not supposed to be the spiral ganglion neurons will follow and they are pretty good at sorting out and trying to find a target to innervate”.​

Would be interesting to know what the take is on intact hair cells that have lost their nerves – why doesn't these nerves connect back to the hair cell if a newly created hair cell makes them connect?

 

Mammals lack the ability to regenerate synapses in the inner ear. It's just something we can't do. However, some studies have shown that applying a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) leads to synapse repair. This is the idea behind OTO-413, which is in clinical trials right now.

As an aside, I came across a optimistic slide on that presentation you linked:

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I haven't heard the podcast yet but I have read the comments.

And this "4 years" timeframe is unclear to me.

4 years before their device is available to public or 4 years before they start human trials?

 

Okay, I just listened to it so it is actually 4 years before they start to try it with humans in a clinical trial. Probably you'll need to double this time to get the human trials done and make it accessible to public if it's working.

Well, that's a very long time waiting but at least they are trying.

 

In light of OTO-313 not planning out (and that path now possibly in doubt), I hope this path can somehow get expedited.

 

Hi, everyone. I found this paper by Dr. Djalilian to be very important. Please share and comment.

→ Tinnitus Is Modulated by Migraine

 

Thanks for this. Should be an interesting read!

 

Thanks.

So a treatment for fluctuating tinnitus is 400 mg Magnesium, B2, Nortriptyline and Topiramate +/- Gabapentin.

In conjunction with CBT and music.

I like the combined approaches rather than trying one thing at a time, usually with little success.

 

Looks like there is a follow-up study on this but it is behind a paywall:

→ A Digitally-Controlled Integrated Circuit Solution for Tinnitus Treatment with Charge Balancing

 

Full article attached.

 

Money bags.

 

Looks like Dr. Djalilian has finished designing the chip based on a model of the human cochlear, with precise measurements and location of implant.