Prof. Thanos Tzounopoulos Receives $2 Million Grant

In simple words without posting more supporting articles/links, the technical world needs to find better radiological methods to study small nerve fibers both motor and sensory within cranial networks that lead to other small nerve fibers networks that also lead to the ears and brain.

There has been good mapping studies from brilliant researchers on lack of blood flow of major arteries for a second causing tinnitus, TMD and most other causes of tinnitus.

 

I hope Lenire works. It will be a better option. Drugs can have serious and permanent side effects after long term use.

 

Trobalt really helped me when I took it. I was lucky to not have any permanent side effects (that I know of). If there was a potassium channel opener with fewer side effects I'd take it.

To get through all phases of FDA trials and be approved for prescriptions, most drugs take a minimum of 10 years. So you aren't too far off.

 

The Eye and Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center

I recently received the newsletter, Sight and Sound, from the Eye & Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh. It reports on recent adoption of a team approach to forming ideas and engaging community members with the intent of educating the public about vision loss, hearing loss and other conditions, such as tinnitus.

Two teams have been assembled already, one of which is a multidisciplinary team or taskforce in the Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center (PHRC) founded by Professor Thanos Tzounopoulos. The other is the Cornea Taskforce.

"The PHRC team plans to develop a new method of classifying people and their hearing loss and tinnitus in a much more mechanistic and neuroscience-based way than has ever been used." The PHRC is in a unique position to accomplish this because it has a high level of expertise and access to patients through the auditory clinic that is completely connected with the PHRC by joint leadership.

"The overarching goal of the PHRC and its taskforce is to help patients better manage their hearing loss and tinnitus, and to eventually find permanent solutions, not just treatments, to these devastating conditions."

Future issues of Sight and Sound will report on the progress of the PHRC taskforce and others currently being formed in both Ophthamology and Otolaryngology.

For more detailed coverage, please see pages 4 and 5 of the attached copy of the newsletter.

TC

 

USA is a suicidal society.

'Lawn darts had been banned from being sold in the United States for many years. The ban was challenged in court in the late 1970s, prompting the Consumer Product Safety Commission to make a compromise ruling allowing their sale provided they were not marketed as toys.'

The iPod sound level can go as high as 110 dB. It is recommended you do not listen at 110 dB.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

It may be selfish of me but I'd prefer to keep the tinnitus thing a secret.

 

I especially love sharing news about researchers who recognize the value of interacting with patients. Such a refreshing alternative to "learn to live with it"! There really are people out there that care.

 

Dr. Tzounopoulos seems to be one of the few that are vigorously on the case of tinnitus. I saw in a different thread someone had emailed him and his responses demonstrated that he is very intent on finding a real treatment for tinnitus.

 

I received this today from the Foundation that supports research at University of Pittsburg. Note the timeline - Prof Thanos Tzounopoulos expects to submit an IND to FDA to begin clinical trials by 2021. Of course a lot could happen between now and then, however its good to see someone making real progress. -TC



Developing a Cure for Tinnitus

The Eye & Ear Foundation collects support from donors like you to help propel research forward. Whether big or small, our donors' gifts make a difference in the lives of patients and their families. One of our favorite stories that exemplifies the impact of continuous support in a given area of research is the story of how the Eye & Ear Foundation provided seed funding to Thanos Tzounopoulos, PhD and the team at the University of Pittsburgh which includes Peter Wipf, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry. This funding helped to secure larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense to advance research towards developing a molecule that could potentially be a cure for tinnitus.

Learn how your support has made a difference in the graphic below (click to enlarge):


Your donations make a difference! As Dr. Tzounopoulos’s work progresses to the pre-clinical stage of development, we believe that now, more than ever, that the small gifts that we collect over time have the power to be transformational in pushing research findings into the hands of patients.

To support this groundbreaking work, donate to The Eye & Ear Foundation.


The Eye & Ear Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization created solely to support the educational and research efforts of the Departments of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh. The Eye & Ear Foundation is the only foundation in the region which supports research and academic efforts to eradicate both hearing and vision loss.

THE EYE & EAR FOUNDATION OF PITTSBURGH

 

Awesome! We are finally starting to see his hopeful research start to materialize. Hopefully we see more of this from different avenues too.

 

Indeed, CBM. News like this lifts my spirits. Now, the drug can fail any where along the way but this looks more like a real time line, a real road map. Finally, somebody that knows what they're doing.

I've got to find my notes from the veterans project we started and get back on track with it. My mother passed and my son, his wife and my grandson were with us for a week so the project stuff's been put away while I was sidetracked.

Take care, TC

 

There are car stereos that go up to 170 dB. My tinnitus started after being trapped in a vehicle with a lunatic that decided to demonstrate how painfully loud his system was.

 

I'm sorry to hear that, and my condolences. Family is always first.

It's great to at least see the invisible hand is at least moving on it's own. I've been adjusting to what seems to be a permanent spike/new baseline and am starting to somewhat rehabituate. I also recently left my job to change to a job where I won't have to hear my tinnitus all day long so I will begin to work on the things needed on my end too since now I have more freedom time.

Your friend, CBM

 

Wow! Scientists and Clinicians coming together working as a chain to use all information towards the progression of a cure. I hope all the Device companies and Universities are listening. Maybe coming together and sharing info is for the greater good.

 

From an email with Professor Thanos:

"In response to your question, yes we are getting closer. Many good labs and good people (clinicians, companies, etc) are working on this problem. We will conquer tinnitus."

Nothing too new to report. But he's responsive and nice, and determined.

 

It’s almost 2020, let’s go. I have emailed him and gotten the same inspiring response. Tired of seeing the reports on these vibration electric machines with no cured results. They shouldn’t even sell one unless it does something, I’m getting to the point where I don’t even believe people saying they’re T is reduced. For some people who are too deaf to try the devices a drug or regeneration may be the only answer. I guess I’ll write Trump again cause that’s all I can do. I’m going to say something sad, it seems like it would take a crying female 8 year old child with T from a bomb in a war commercial to get this problem higher up in the food chain. I don’t see much changing unless commercials reach TV, just like the dozen drug company ads. Or a big fat sign in the middle of the end zone during Super Bowl field goals. Maybe picket a VA sidewalk and call the media like the Unions. This crap is frustrating. I’m getting sick of herbal tea’s and focus on other things, supplement’s, Yoga, meditation, It’s all BS. You got to live with it or try and help find a cure. Where’s the door to knock on or kick in? Maybe I’ll calm down after this coffee.

 

Is the second phase they are performing now actually focusing on preventing tinnitus in susceptible people rather than trying to cure tinnitus? Or am I reading it wrong.

Honestly, I think we are decades away from a cure, although hopefully something will be developed to ease the symptoms in the mean time.

 

Well, it's true that things such as the common cold and herpes also don't have a cure yet. You would think that herpes would be easy to cure. HOWEVER... they DO have medications that can prevent herpes breakouts / treat herpes breakouts more quickly.

We may not be closer to finding a CURE for tinnitus... after all, cures for most ailments are very difficult to achieve. HOWEVER, I believe that there will be medications in the near future that can bring tinnitus down to a more reasonable level.

On a side note... Danny Boy had stated before he died that his tinnitus had been cured by Retigabine (Trobalt). Therefore, there is a medication that exists that has PROVEN to cure tinnitus. The only problem (as seen before) is that this drug has been taken off the market because the side effects were too serious.

HOWEVER, Dr. Tzounopoulos and his research department have produced a timeline which states that the plan is for RL-81 (a derivative of Trobalt) to go to clinical trials starting in 2021. Right now they are in the pre-clinical phase.

The point is that there are people working on a cure/treatment for tinnitus, and I feel in my heart that we are moving closer to seeing a solution for tinnitus sufferers.

 

Fallacy. One person claiming to be cured by X does not mean anything. It could have been coincidental.

Danny Boy also claimed to be cured by many other things, he had success with almost every substance he tried. I think he was strongly susceptible to the placebo effect...

Also many people who tried Retigabine did not find it helpful. On the contrary, people got very bad side effects.

I don't think Dr. Tzounopoulos's efforts will help us, unfortunately...

 

I agree. I struggle to believe there will ever be an ingestible solution to this.

 

Danny Boy was just one example. Other people were obviously finding that it does this, which is why the drug is being redesigned. The United States' Department of Defense would never waste their time and money here if only one person on tinnitus talk from England was saying it.

 

Thanks for the uplifting message. I don't understand why there is so much negativity on this board sometimes. I wouldn't think a doctor with funding from a high level institution would be wasting his time on something that he didn't have faith in. Aside from that... there are other things coming out in the near future as well.

 

People may not realize it, but much of the the fear comes from ignorance, similar to the witch hunts from the past. There may also be some envy in some few people, having suffered for so long without anything close to being a treatment, as compared to those who are relatively new to the disease now potentially having treatment options so much sooner than them.

There are also some people who may just feel terrible about life and want to drag others down with them. They find a sort of satisfaction in bringing down others. Beware of these people. They're all over the internet in general, and even if you are a good hearted person and may want to help them, trust me once you recognize someone as being that way, it is not worth trying to get them to change there ways.

A lot of people don't dig as deep as the optimistic ones, which is why they don't find the reasons to be optimistic. It's easy for them to say "scam" and think they would look cool for saying that. A lot of people here are also prone to the one sided reference bias. One example is from being let down by other supposed upcoming treatments like Auris Medical, but even that isn't ruled out. Some overhyped potential treatments like that before, and raised there expectations too high.

Realistically, we have good reason to be optimistic with real treatments that are now being released or near being released, along with a cure coming from multiple directions on the horizon.

 

With every veteran with tinnitus getting covered for the Levo device, I guess they're realising they better find something better and cheaper as quickly as possible. Don't know if the VA and USA Defense Dept. share their budget though...

 

What time frame do you think we are honestly looking at?

 

Of course it would be for the greater good but this is swimming upstream of the most prevalent path which is individual pursuit of a cure or viable therapy. Reason is pretty simple. Its hard to coalesce research from different parties but moreover it defies the 'greed model' in a capitalistic society. People want to be first to find a cure and reap the financial windfall and related fame.

 

It's barely about to start preclinical trials. It could be quite a few years. If we're lucky, maybe about 4-5 so long as it works and is safe. It could easily be more though. So far the lead researcher says what they have so far looks promising. If all goes well, then it could be the shorter time frame. There's lots of variables.

 

Hi bro, I gave you a star for your awesome uplifting message.

One issue, not a biggy, but I got to say it.

The DoD wastes money all the time and gets ripped off all the time by corrupt subcontractors and insiders. I want a cure, and think this bloke in Pittsburgh is a morally sound person. The DoD, as I recall, sponsored Levo? If I am wring, I stand corrected, but I don’t have much faith in them. They may have good intentions, like the VA, but perhaps the bureaucratic system is just too big...

I am with you bro, just raising a question mark over the DoD.
Hope your tinnitus is mellowing, mine is a consistent thorn in my ass.