Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration — Maybe We Can Know More

Any promising companies coming out with a cure soon or timelines? I have read about frequency and a few others. Is the general consencious that something should be coming out in about 5 or so years from now for hearing loss cure or treatment? Any hopeful timelines been announced? Really need some hope right now.

 

First: I didn't read about anyone from the industry saying that a cure is in near sight. When you are talking about reverting hearing loss, then audions trial is the best candidate for a treatment in 5 years, in my opinion, because they are already conducting a Phase I/II trial. I really believe (thats important, because no facts), that given they can prove effectiveness, they will have an official therapy in 5 years available.

But more important: You have to learn to live with your condition, regardless of whether the therapy comes in 1, 5 or 15 years. As hard as it sounds, the meaning behind that is really simple. You have to stop holding on a condition you don't have. You are constantly changing: your mind, your body, and with that also your health. No condition you have will last forever and in the end you will die. And you can do nothing about that, except to understand that life is working this way. In my experience, once you have accepted your "faith" (in apostrophe, because faith sounds like your condition has a god-given meaning, but it doesn't), you are able to see the wonderful nature of life and feel the joy.

 

What @vaka says is very important, somebody said on here once and I will always remember it, along the lines of "tomorrow is another day closer to a cure, yet as it is another day closer to your death"
It was a great saying and made me think to enjoy life regardless.

Anyway, back to the topic, I think the word "cure" should not be overused too much, even an effective treatment for hearing loss and tinnitus - because there isn't one! (That's effective at restoring hearing and quieting tinnitus -there's just managing techniques).

Personally, I would be happy with a safe drug to take that diminished the tinnitus long term - that wouldn't be a cure but it would be a treatment.

 

Ok, let me specify my question a bit more. Is there any companies with some serious timelines out there on when they feel they will be able to bring their product to market that cures hearing loss SPECIFICALLY? Does frequency have a timeline at this point or other companies? I understand that no timeline is certain, but they must have some ideas of when they hope to bring some products to the market.

 

No one (ie frequency, decibel, audion) has completed a phase 1 trial yet - in fact they have barely begun them - so the answer is no one knows when something will be on the market. Companies may well have internal absolute best case, perfect world timelines, and you hear things like "5 years" being talked about in press releases and interviews, but that is essentially useless at this stage

 

Has there been any releases like that at this point though? I understand things are "best case", but I would at least like to know what they may be saying and I can't seem to find any timelines from them. Is there any out there for those companies? Are they offering any ideas or thoughts on a timeline?

I just would like to hear what they may be saying.

 

From what I’ve read is that Harvard University And Regain Project both we’re able to bring back hearing in animals and now going to start testing on people. Supposedly they were able to regrow the hair cells with stem cells and some brain cells I believe but another article was talking about how it might become cancer. We’ll see I guess if it would truly work on people and POSSIBLY stop T for some of us. Regain project is still recruiting then Harvard is scheduled in August 2018.

 

@Steven__ :Can you add your sources?

 

https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news...g-loss-might-be-a-double-edged-sword/81255139
https://hsci.harvard.edu/news/progress-toward-treatment-hearing-loss https://www.regainyourhearing.eu/trial/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171107092626.htm https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news...g-loss-might-be-a-double-edged-sword/81255139 This is just a few i was able to find.I’ll look for the ones that explains the science part more when I am able to

 

Let me put it this way. Research/technology works in a way that it has an exponential curve. That means that every bit of research and discovery will help push forward the next wave of research/discovery, and thus our understanding of our problem. Also, every year more and more (especially young children and adults) people get tinnitus and hearing loss at younger ages. All of this means more interest, more research and more money.

Combine this with the exponential curve of the research that is being done, and I honestly think that we will be seeing and effective treatment for managing our condition coming out soon. Note that I did not say a cure. I would also like to add that there already has been an effective treatment (for most) in trobalt/retigabine. Unfortunately, this had too many side-effects, but to say that there is nothing out there is just not true.

 

@Steven__ Thank you very much for posting. Some I did not read before. The Harvard trials look to me like the upcoming FX trials. The article with the stemcells mentioning cancer seem to have different technic/approach then Audion/FX. Audion states that nothing indicates that there is an increased risk for that. See the clinical trial patient sheet: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/audion-therapeutics-trial.21830/page-4#post-289684

 

What about just hearing loss?

I ve read the whole thread on Frequency Therapeutics and they sound confident when talking about trials. My guess is that hearing loss will be curable faster than tinnitus? Would be amazing for somebody like me, who doesnt suffer from tinnitus but is still irritated about hearing loss.

 

If hearing loss could be cured a lot tinnitus/hearing loss sufferers would get alot milder tinnitus symptoms.
@Mortzcent did you never experience any tinnitus after your loud noise exposure that caused your hearing loss?

 

I am not sure tbh. I think i do have ringing but its very faint, like i cant hear it at all unless i am laying in bed and everything else is silent but even then its faint and mostly unnoticeable which makes me wonder whether its actually tinnitus.

My main concern is hearing loss but my hearing loss is definitely not as bad as some members here but it still puts me in anxiety.

 

Not sure this is the right place for this story, but it's both really interesting and lots of commentary about the current research on the causes of T.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/were-the-cuban-sonic-attack-victims-actually-poisoned

 

It is interesting, but it's not about the topic of this thread, and there is already a thread about this topic:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...iplomats-to-lose-their-hearing-in-cuba.23305/

 

https://newatlas.com/hearing-loss-hair-cell-regeneration/48036/

Hey guys, have a question. Is this the one frequency is working on? I've read in the article the second step once progenitor cells were grown, to stimulate them with additional drugs to differentiate into mature hair cells isn't needed? From that sight it's really different to audion's approach isn't it? Looks like a lot easier to me.

 

According to the report, this is Frequency Therapeutics yes.

 

Then why is everyone talking about the second step? From the article the first step is just enough. Can anyone explain what the article is missing?

 

The article isn't missing anything (though it is old). The goal is 1 treatment that will start a process where some supporting cells differentiate and then some of the differentiated cells become hair cells. See https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...g-loss-regeneration.18889/page-13#post-249079 for a summary of the experiments performed in the paper.

 

By the way, the second paper was scheduled to be published this year. I guess it's been pushed back to 2018?

 

Where did you see that there was a 2nd paper coming?

 

Papers aren't "scheduled to be published". Once submitted, papers go through a review process that can happen quickly or can take awhile. If you look at the paper from February in Cell Reports, the original draft was received by the journal on December 30, 2015. It was sent back for revision (we don't know when), and the revised paper was received on January 5, 2017. The paper was accepted in its revised form by the journal on January 25, 2017, and it was published on February 21, 2017. So it was about 14 months from the time they submitted the paper until we knew about it. They of course didn't wait until that one was published before they started working on additional papers, but we have no way of knowing where things are in that process.

 

Interesting, thanks.

 

I know how the peer-review method works. I publish my own papers in economics journals. Maybe the word "scheduled" wasn't the most accurate one. Either way, the've said a couple of times that they're working on a second paper to be published later this year.

 

Anyone have any info on possible side effects of Frequency's approach?

The thing about stem cells and gene therapy that would always concern me is the dreaded "C" word.
I feel like if they are confident this won't be a side effect, Frequency's technology seems very promising, and superior to what I've read about GenVec and others (which sounds, at least to me, more like a "one shot" deal).

 

"C word" ?

 

Cancer.

 

yeah...makes sense.... hopefully a non factor...

 

https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/live-well/our-community/our-blog/a-new-breakthrough-towards-preventing-hearing-loss-in-usher-syndrome/?utm_campaign=240293_Soundbite December 2017&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Royal National Institute for Deaf People Trading as Action on Hearing Loss&dm_i=45UF,55ET,14ZO5H,K55D,1

New article.

Its interesting that if a defective gene is corrected before hearing loss occurs then you can keep from going deaf later in life. If the hair cells have already died then its too late. I guess we knew that and I think genetic testing in babies is a good idea once the gene editing technologies start emerging.