Hough Ear Institute's Hair Cell Regeneration Project

March 2021- Hough Institute Breakthrough-...

Can someone make a TL;DR?

 

I only listened to the interview at the end. At around 52 minutes he talks about 3-5 years where people can use it? And starting clinical trials in a couple of years? Not too sure about the wording on that one.

He said that the Phase 2 trial for the Pill will be expensive, at around $10-20 million. The Phase 1 trial was "cheap" apparently at $1 million. They aren't sure whether the Phase 2 trial will be for noise-induced hearing loss, tinnitus or ototoxicity.

The Injection technology is apparently in the preclinical phase while the Pill is at Phase 2.

The sweet spot is at 52 minutes - 57 minutes.

Sorry if my post is confusing. I'm sleepy and it's late lol. After watching it again it appears that this is intended for Acute Acoustic Trauma (24 minutes time stamp). I wonder if it will be too late for us by the time this comes to the market.

 

Would this work for acoustic trauma from years past?

 

Yes, it takes literally decades for the treatment window to close.

 

Can I ask for a source on this?

 

To explain it very quickly: Some papers showed, that NHPN-1010 increases the BDNF concentration (not sure whether studies where animal studies or on vitro). By this, synaptic growth is enhanced and hidden hearing loss hopefully treated (basically in the same way as OTO-413 intends to). As long as the hair cells and the neurons (with the missing synapses) still exist, it is possible to restore the synaptic connection between these two. It is believed that the neurons do not die for many years or even decades in humans even if they do not receive any input anymore (due to destroyed synapses). Therefore the treatment window only closes if the neurons die.

As a warning though: NHPN-1010 has not been in any clinical trials for efficacy for tinnitus so far and therefore there are only animal or even in vitro studies to rely on. In animal studies where one administered NHPN-1010 more than a month after noise injury it showed normalisation of important biomarkers related to tinnitus.

We do not know so far, whether it will also work in humans and to what extent it does lead to curing hidden hearing loss or tinnitus. As far as I know not even the exact dosing is known. HPN-07 has already been in clinical trials in the mid 2000s to treat ischemic strokes (just like SPI-1005/Ebselen in the 90s) but failed.

Here are a few links as sources:

1. Antioxidants Reduce Cellular and Functional Changes Induced by Intense Noise in the Inner Ear and Cochlear Nucleus
2. Electrophysiological assessment and pharmacological treatment of blast-induced tinnitus
3. Disufenton Sodium
4. Safety and Tolerability of NXY-059 for Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage

 

So I direct messaged Hough Ear Institute's Instagram account and asked:

Me: Any date to start clinical trials?

Hough Ear Institute's Instagram account: We're not sure. We hope in 2023, but we have to assess our data from the two-year proof-of-concept study we began in September of last year and will complete September 1, 2022.

 

If FDA is banning NAC, how will that affect this research?

 

FDA banned NAC as a supplement.

 

Why?

 

When?

 

Amazon confirms plans on removing NAC supplements

 

Why would it impact this research? It appears that the FDA has issues with it being sold as a supplement, not with it being sold/used as a prescription drug.

 

It won't.

 

Hopefully Hough Ear Institute pulls through with some success. Last time I spoke with them and read their newsletter they said they think their pill can regrow nerves — providing relief from tinnitus and inflammation of the inner ear from noise exposure.

I’m not expecting anything but I feel like those of us who got noise-induced tinnitus/inflammation have more of an issue with damaged nerves than with hair cell loss, though I’m not an expert and could be wrong on that point.

Either way, I hope for the best and that we can get more updates from them.

 

I've been wondering if there's a way to determine whether one has damaged nerves or hair cell loss or both?

 

There is no way to diagnose cochlear synaptopathy.

 

You're correct but we can know it's been damaged if you have difficulty distinguishing words in noise among other things.

 

Distortion, hyperacusis and other auditory processing issues likely stem from cochlear synaptopathy.

 

Do we know if tinnitus can get triggered from synaptopathy or are there likely hair cell damage too? Maybe if there’s some hearings loss at certain frequencies there's likely also (or just?) hair cell damage?

 

I think it is safe to assume that most people with tinnitus have a few issues wrong and fixing one issue can provide at least partial relief. So even if you have significant hair cell loss plus synapse damage, fixing one issue could provide a decent amount of relief. In some people, even fixing one of the broken inputs may be enough to satisfy the brain.

 

It is so discouraging to read "come back in 10 years and we might have something."

 

Where did you see that?

 

To my knowledge Hough Ear Institute currently says that they will be able to get their pill to the market in under ten years. Even if it takes them ten years to release it for us, I will be satisfied assuming that their medication works.

 

Their website actually claims 3-5 years...

 

Above it says they hope to start the clinical trial in 2023.

So that means best case is they start the clinical trial in December 2023. The trial will take years, then it will take more years to get anything to market.

= 10 years away.

 

Who cares. It’s for acute cases anyway.

 

I don't think that there has been any suggestion that this could take 10 years even from Hough Ear Institute themselves...

 

Is there anyone here who lives in Oklahoma? They could drop around and take a look. I did a web search and it seems that it's like a regular ENT practice and I read some of the reviews. At times it strikes me like a mom & pop enterprise. The teasing thing is, who knows? They might actually have the magic mixture.

 

Sorry, but that's not how that works, you can't just "pop around and take a look". It's not a big institution but it's no mom & pop either, it's a research non-profit, looking to go through trials.