Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration — Maybe We Can Know More

New article published in The Hearing Journal entitled 'Defining Different Types of Hidden Hearing Loss':

https://journals.lww.com/thehearing...fferent_Types_of__Hidden_Hearing_Loss_.8.aspx

It also mentions that: "In addition to cochlear synaptopathy, research in humans and animals suggests that OHC function may also contribute to speech understanding in the presence of background noise."

So this sounds Frequency Therapeutics etc will be able to make a good case for their drug in terms of hair cell function playing an important role in clarity.

 

https://journals.lww.com/thehearing...fferent_Types_of__Hidden_Hearing_Loss_.8.aspx

An interesting article on the different "types" of hidden hearing loss

 

Sorry I didn't see that you already posted this, I impulsively posted the same link without reading this page of the thread haha

 

Is this the same tech and science as Frequency Therapeutics'?

 

This is just a general thread on hair cell regeneration I think. From what I got the following is currently in the pipeline:

• FX-322 (Frequency Therapeutics). Currently in phase 2a trial testing efficacy. Results expected 09/2020. Probably the most promising as they already had some positive results in phase 1 trial.
• Audion Therapeutics. Phase 2 trial finished. Results expected 30/4/2020 (nobody has heard something yet)
• The Hough Ear Institute seems to have something in the pipeline but they seem to be in the early stages and are lacking funding
• Then when googling around I found the hearing restoration project https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/hearing-restoration-project. But don't know if they have some drug / treatment in the pipeline or if this is just some meet and greet for scientists working on this problem.

 

https://www.oto.theclinics.com/article/S0030-6665(20)30050-5/fulltext
'Avenue For Future Tinnitus Treatments'

"Tinnitus is a common symptom. Standard therapies aim at improving the quality of life and reducing the psychological stress associated with tinnitus. Most interventions have little or no effect on the main symptom. Those affected subjects, however, want such a change and prefer a specific solution, such as pharmacologic therapy to other modalities. Scientific efforts have not yet led to significant improvement in the range of therapies. This article outlines existing efforts and develops ideas on how research for improved tinnitus therapy might look in the future."

 

@Michael Leigh why is the above post funny? Or is this just you being petty and creeping on people's post history because people disagree with you and your contradictory views on thr TRT threads?

 

@serendipity1996

Don't worry too much about this Michael guy. I and most members of T-talk agree with you that we would be better off with more real treatments instead of those TRT/CBT mental guilt games.

 

As FGG already noted the best we currently have as comparison for the regeneration technology are the CIs and I came about this paper.

One-Year Results for Patients with Unilateral Hearing Loss and Accompanying Severe Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Treated with a Cochlear Implant

https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/488755

which stated

Hyperacusis handicap (THS) decreased significantly from a preoperative score of 26 to 17 at 12 months.

So there is hope that the hair cell regeneration also improves hyperacusis.

 

Wow, cochlear implant actually reduces hyperacusis. This is great news. Hopefully that’s the case with FX-322.

 

And keep in mind that CIs are very crude in their current form and only hit a few frequencies (and also don't work well in cochlear dead zones with very profound loss, which many CI patients have). But the fact that they improved anyway bodes well for loudness hyperacusis folks imo.

 

They don't differentiate between loudness and pain hyperacusis. This is certainly a deficiency. Does anybody know a study which checks the effect of CIs on pain hyperacusis?

 

A new option for restoring hearing:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-stem-cell-paths.amp

Not sure if you need to be an embryo for this.

 

This was posted on the Hyperacusis Research Facebook page:

https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/blogs/tinnitus-and-noise-trauma-to-the-inner-ear

Does curing tinnitus mean first curing hearing loss? Almost certainly, according to this piece from our partner, the Hearing Health Foundation[/URL].

"Scientists believe that tinnitus is always associated with one or more forms of hearing loss, often noise-induced. . . Mounting evidence implicates tinnitus as an indicator of underlying auditory deficits, however mild these deficits might be, and including “hidden hearing loss” that isn’t captured via the standard audiogram. This takes us from the former concept of “some form of hearing loss is associated with tinnitus” to a picture in which “tinnitus is a symptom of a form of hearing loss.”"

Similar neural activity "may also underlie the hyperacusis, or a lowered threshold to discomfort from sound, often associated with chronic noise-induced tinnitus."

Tinnitus is also an "early symptom of an underlying auditory injury before measurable audiometric changes."

 

In the same article it says:

Even normal hearing volunteers who wore silicone earplugs for seven days to simulate a temporary hearing loss developed tinnitus in that short timescale, although the tinnitus resolved after removing the earplug.

This is new to me. If you wear too much hearing protection you can actually make things worse.

 

^ I used to sleep with ear plugs, lastly I had even custom build ear plugs. But then I got this left ear tinnitus (hiss) and hyperacusis. HA went away but T remained. I belive that ear plugs have something to do with, perhaps ears add amplification (sensitivy) when they are blocked some way. When I wear ear plugs I hear constant ”hisss” sound.

 

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/new...developmental-map-inner-ear-sound-sensor-mice

Study Charts Developmental Map of Inner Ear Sound Sensor in Mice
Data offers valuable resource for developing stem-cell based therapies for hearing loss

A team of researchers has generated a developmental map of a key sound-sensing structure in the mouse inner ear. Scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health, and their collaborators analyzed data from 30,000 cells from mouse cochlea, the snail-shaped structure of the inner ear. The results provide insights into the genetic programs that drive the formation of cells important for detecting sounds. The study also sheds light specifically on the underlying cause of hearing loss linked to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and Loeys-Dietz syndrome.

 

This is very interesting. I developed tinnitus playing a video game, and I had to force myself to hear small sounds, and when I took off my helmets it appeared.

And curiously a doctor told me to try never to be silent, and many times when I am silent a small sound appears that increases.

It is possible that one way to develop tinnitus is by forcing the ear to listen.

 

Yes, the ear is a very fragile thing. If you give it too much input you are doomed and if to less also. I am wondering why evolution hasn't given us the capability to regrow hair cells like the birds to make this whole thing more resilient.

 

This is very interesting. I notice my tinnitus is less loud when wearing my hearing aids. I have severe hearing loss in my right ear, so the input from my hearing aid is pretty significant. I hope people with mild hearing loss and tinnitus will also see improvement if their hearing is restored.

 

^ I wear hearing aid in my left ear, too. Without it, tinnitus is definetly louder.

 

A new treatment on the horizon:

https://techtransfer.universityofca...tn_B_GyWiL8-RA7Um2zUnw3IIv0ia175KTHjiCe5PVkmg

 

Watch the first interview with Neuromod (Lenire). Ross O'Neill talked about a study where it was shown that deprivation of sound can actually induce tinnitus.



It wasn't permanent but this explains the new theories of 'central gain'.

Also, the hearing frequency that is damaged often reflects your tinnitus tone(s).

 

Found this article:
Study charts developmental map of inner ear sound sensor in mice
Data offers valuable resource for developing stem cell-based therapies for hearing loss
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200529150647.htm

The actual paper that they are referring to:
Characterization of the development of the mouse cochlear epithelium at the single cell level
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7221106/

 

I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks that using animals for tests is a waste of time?

 

You want them to try them in people first? One of the (many) reasons they try drugs in animals first is they can humanely put them down of something horrible and unanticipated happens so they don't have to suffer.

Another is cost. If you have 20 candidate compounds you have to see which ones have potential. That would mean 20 different FDA trials to get one candidate beyond phase 1. Huge waste of time and resources.

 

I know it is freaking cruel, but if it's done for a greater good for mankind and the animals don't suffer to much. I'm fine with it.

 

I found this pretty interesting. Just like to share it.

To compare tinnitus patients who have normal hearing between 250 Hz and 8 kHz with normal controls with regard to the ability of each group to hear extended high-frequency pure tone thresholds.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804091/

 

Well of course. If only more ENTs would update their knowledge on this!

 

Why not develop an approach on ex vivo cochlea. It is not yet finalized but it could be a more ethical approach towards animals and more convincing results.