Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration — Maybe We Can Know More

No but I assume this research?

https://www.actiononhearingloss.org...rugs-to-reconnect-the-inner-ear-to-the-brain/

I hope they find a silver bullit. Something totally overlooked.

 

Well, if they find a FDA-approved drug you could in theory ask your doctor/ENT to prescribe it...

 

https://www.actiononhearingloss.org...ied-in-hearing-loss-providing-treatment-hope/

New findings about genes that affect hearing loss.

 

One of the largest Dutch newspapers today published a letter from neurologists, geriatrics etc. calling on the minister of Health to invest more in dementia prevention. Their message basically is that since dementia costs Dutch a society a lot of money and decades long research haven’t resulted in a cure, we should focus more on prevention. One of the first factors they list, after exercise and normal blood pressure, is improved hearing. Wondering how we might use this to our advantage.

 

Would this help noise induced tinnitus?

 

Good and recent article about where we are in terms of hearing restoration (hair cells, spiral ganglion neurons, ribbon synapses).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6657260/

 

2 1/2 years old now.

 

Ha! You’re right. Guess June 2019 was when it was published in the AMS.

 

What’s going on with the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss? They haven’t updated their Twitter and website for a while. Some of the involved labs are still recruiting though. They also changed finding a cure “within a decade” to within the “foreseeable future”... How about trying to get dr. Heller or dr. Jackler on the podcast?

 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-08-imaging-ear-gold-standard.amp

 

From the article:

The level of radiation needed for her CLS study is far too high to use in living humans "but our goal is always ultimately to help people, and we are highly optimistic about the future potential of this work."

 

Pretty sure some dudes from Stanford are behind Frequency Therapeutics.

 

Is that a generic "pretty sure" or a classic JohnAdams "pretty sure, wink wink"

 

Will McLean was in Hellar Lab I believe. Not wink wink like I know that BDNF and NT3 injections are safe wink wink.

 

He was in Langer lab, or at least worked with him (according to his Linkedin). I do think work from the Initiative (indirectly) contributed to the drugs that are in clinical trials right now. For example, Heller published with Albert Edge, who is involved with REGAIN and also worked with McLean.

 

Edge was more than "involved" with REGAIN, he was one of the principal founders and scientists according to what I read about the project. Regardless, I sure hope I, we, can get a shot at their treatments... and perhaps the delivery will be improved soonish as well.

 

Albert Edge seems to have collaborated with almost everybody. I'd love to get his perspective on the state of the art. I don't think he's directly involved with Regain now. Could be wrong.

 

Yeah, it’s a small world. Everyone probably knows each other to some degree.

 

New article:

https://www.genengnews.com/insights/targeting-the-inner-ear/

 

I wonder why they didn't note Hough Ear institute.

I hope for the Meniere's sufferers, Otonomy actually offers some genuine relief, because they took a liquid steroid which is already injected (and doesn't cure it) and turned it into a gel. Whoopdy do.

 

Now where is the listing of said 44 genes? I would surely like to do a comparison on my results from 23andme.

 

They didn't mention Frequency Therapeutics either and seem to have gotten Autifony's AUT00063 mechanism of action wrong, too.

 

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...ls-damaged-by-noise-prevent-hearing-loss.aspx

“Audiologist and molecular biologist O'neil Guthrie, an associate professor in NAU's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, is collaborating with New Jersey-based Optigenex on a three-year contract totaling $551,000.

Guthrie will conduct a pre-clinical investigation of a novel therapy using the company's patented ac-11 technology based on carboxy alkyl esters, which help the body's natural ability to repair DNA.

Guthrie believes this therapy, which will be administered as a single oral formulation, has the potential to repair cells damaged by noise and prevent hearing loss. As an added benefit, the technology can also target ROS and inflammation to prevent cell death in the cochlea.

By developing a single drug given orally as a vitamin or gummy that addresses all three problems, Guthrie hopes to make the drug as safe and effective as possible, avoiding unknown or poorly understood interactions between multiple drugs and their side effects.”

“"The possibility of finally developing a treatment for hearing loss is particularly exciting," Guthrie said. "This is because, in addition to being a research scientist, I am also a licensed clinical audiologist with more than 17 years' experience, so I am familiar with the day-to-day struggles of individuals who suffer with hearing loss.”

Another thing that looks promising in the inner ear field.

 

I hadn't heard that noise produces a chain reaction which results in DNA mutation. Has this been confirmed elsewhere.

How does this exactly work? Has this been proven and to what degree? Can someone elaborate??

 

https://www.researchgate.net/public...rineural_functions_following_noise_injury/amp

This is work from the guy involved in this. I’m not a scientist so I can’t answer this. As a layman all I can say that the fact that there have never been this many drugs in the (pre-)clinical phase for hearing loss is a very good sign. The way I observe it multiple flavors of drugs are steadily reaching patients, probably starting with preventative drugs and then onto restoration drugs, again in multiple flavors (small molecules, gene therapy, stem cells). There also seems to be a category that overlaps those goals, Hough’s pill being an example of that.

 

According to this, having nasal mucus in the middle ear and seeping into the cochlea could trigger hair cell regeneration, but we don't seem to see that occurring.

"IGF1 and IGFBP3 Are Both Present in Saliva and Nasal Mucus"
http://www.tasteandsmell.com/jun06.htm

These two compounds trigger the proliferation of LGR5+ stem cells.


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1934590915003094

 

I'm starting to think that the blood-labyrinth barrier (BLB) is our unfortunate enemy in this as it may be the thing preventing healing growth factors from entering the cochlea. Our intestinal stem cells are basically the same thing and they regenerate just fine, they also are not blocked from the systemic blood flow by the BLB.

 

No surgery can be done to accommodate for that, huh?

 

The BLB lines the cavities of the vestibular system, so, no way. There are ways to temporarily increase the permeability of it though, such as with manitol injections into your bloodstream. Trying to get medicine into your cochlea this was would be potentially very dangerous. It could be possible but this is the type of thing that would in fact require animal testing before trying it on a human. Even then, I'm not aware of any medicine that would even be useful in this regard.

 

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/reversing-hearing-loss