Hough Ear Institute's Hair Cell Regeneration Project

Nope, not unless that person died. That’s also why we need imaging technology to step up. Then we’ll know exactly what needs regeneration.

 

You're super cool to be interacting with us here. Thanks!

 

Hair cell damage can be assessed with a pure tone audiogram. As far as the rest of the pathway, it would be extraordinarily helpful to be able to distinguish between types of damage but I suspect most everyone with hearing damage of any sort has at least some synaptic ribbon damage since they seem the most sensitive to insult.

 

That would be awesome indeed.
Just want to add how much all of us here appreciate your interacting with us.

 

Still seems to me that this is only effective if taken within a window of 24-72 hours after trauma. Again I hope I'm wrong but I haven't read if they tried this treatment after say, a month or two or even longer since most of us here are many months or years in. Seems like this was only used immediately after trauma. Which if that's the case, then it seems like NAC might be doing all the heavy lifting here, zapping all the free radicals, hence allowing the body to repair itself since the nerves weren't killed, but only damaged. I really hope I'm wrong because this would possibly cure a large amount of people here.

 

So you expect more of it? Maybe sometime soon?

What you have here sounds like the Holy Grail to us. I'd be more than happy to do whatever it takes to participate in the next trial if possible, and am eagerly awaiting any news of it.

 

The only problem there is that there are 1000s of others who also want to participate in the trial.

I would love to, but being based in the UK I presume it means I won't be able to.

 

Effective to what degree? As above, is this based on animal studies or on humans?

 

Why does it seem to you that it's only effective 24-72 hours after trauma? No where does it say anything about that time frame being the only effective thing.

It literally says it was designed for early treatment, but then they noticed it goes beyond that and actually repairs. Read about it.

 

That's not a problem, it might actually be contrary. Somehow, these trials are always in need of participants. Usually there are location requirements, some are just to be able to make weekly meetings, others want you within a certain amount of miles, at least here in the U.S.

 

@Justin De Moss Is there a time limit in which you guys believe the pill would be rendered inefficient?3 months,6 months, or perhaps a year or two?

 

Thanks friend... coffeed up and read up... cheers for that.

 

@JohnAdams have you seen your doctor about writing you that right to try type letter for Hough's pill?

 

I think this would be the best option. It should be much cheaper to get the drugs approved in the EU than the US.

If I'm not mistaken, you can go through the approval process in one member country (that has less restrictive rules for approval) and then ask for approval in all EU countries. But I might be wrong. In any case, it should be much cheaper, so please take this seriously into consideration.

 

@Justin De Moss
For how long would the pill need to be taken for it to work? Could it then be stopped or does it need to be taken continuously?

 

The crux is there are multiple elements in the inner ear responsible for hearing. We all know the so called hair cells, but what they’ve found is that oftentimes it’s not the hair cells themselves that are damaged, but the ribbon synapses of the hair cells or the spiral ganglion neurons (SGN). Damage to the latter is I think called neuropathy. Severe neuropathy would also lead to inability to use a cochlear implant (provided there’s also severe hair cell damage), since those are made to bypass the hair cells and use the spiral ganglion neurons.

That said, most people with hearing loss have damage to hair cells, synapses and SGNs. Regrown hair cells in vitro and vivo seem to have ribbon synapses. We don’t know if drugs that regenerate hair cells also have the effect of restoring synapses to hair cells without synapses that were already there prior to injecting the drug.

 

Not yet.

 

Hi Justin, thank you again for taking the time to speak to us. Maybe this is also a question for the podcast, but what do you mean by ‘meaningful connections’? Which connections do Hough think are restored? Are we talking about the ribbon synapses of hair cells or spiral ganglion neurons?

And do I take it patients who participated in Phase 1 reported their tinnitus quietening? Were there also patients with hearing loss who reported improvement in tinnitus without substantial improvement in hearing? I mean, your pill is not going to regrow hair cells. That’s what the injections are for. It would be a nice way to indicate hair cell loss and tinnitus are not necessarily connected, but that there might be something else that’s damaged in the inner ear that your pill restores that does cause tinnitus.

 

Wow, so the hair cell stuff is still 10+ years off. God damn it.

 

With some luck something will hit the market sooner. The question is not if something will be released, but how well it works and for whom.

 

Hough has said they aim for "mid 2020s" so about the 2025 area.

Frequency is moving pretty fast too, I'm pretty sure if all goes well they'll be available in about 3 years.

 

What about reaching out to veteran foundations, even the smaller ones like this one good old Liutenant Dan has here for funding to take care of this as of yet cured disease that is now the most common VA claim?like https://www.garysinisefoundation.org/

If we can connect these foundations to researchers like the ones at HEI, this may help solve our funding problem..

 

Still ridiculous. No need for such timelines.

 

Dude, how did you deduce that from what was said? Don't jump to conclusions.

 

I think 2-3 years is a pretty realistic timeline for it to hit the market. If it's any sooner, I'm not gonna complain lol

The thing I really want is for them to be able to offer it to people with mostly normal hearing but have tinnitus at least once it's on the market.

 

Is that what Frequency has said? All sounds too good to be true to me.

 

Because the injection is for the hair cell stuff and Hough have already said it will be at the end of the 2020s. Or am I confusing something?

 

I don't expect anything to be available in the next 5 to 10 years, fast tracked or not, at least not anything that is linked to the restoration of the auditory system.

 

I think FX-322 and REGAIN stand a chance to enter the market in or before 2025, but that will depend of course on how well they perform in the trials. I don’t think either of those will provide the cure. Change will be incremental, with each new generation of drugs and combinations of those drugs providing better results. And that also depends on how badly the condition of a patient is. But it is obvious things are moving in the right direction. There’s never been a time where multiple drugs to restore hearing are in clinical trials. Not to mention drugs that will probably enter trials within the next 5 years, like Otonomy’s and Decibel’s hair cell loss drugs and Rinri’s stem cell therapy.

 

It's 2019 and Frequency Therapeutics and Otonomy are phase 2 testing their hair cell regeneration drugs as we speak. One being fast tracked. Hough is about to start phase 2 on their pill for tinnitus. Their injection is further behind but that doesn't necessarily mean 10 years. Don't doom and gloom it. We're GOING to get there!