Zebrafish Research

New research on zebrafish brings a cure for hearing loss closer - Action On Hearing Loss: RNID​

www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk​

 

i saw that Joe! Glad to see they are looking into the possibilities.

 

They seriously need to tell me which two drugs increased the hair cell regeneration rate! I wouldn't do anything irresponsible

 

Joe...thanks for the link

im with david ...would sure love to know the names of the compounds

i suspect we know one...Retinoblastoma protein (pRb)

check this article out....very techy but just the last paragraph under the discussion section makes it all worth while

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1450112/

"Is it possible to regenerate functional hair cells by manipulating the pRb pathway? Permanent deletion of Rb is not optimal because it causes cell loss and hair bundle abnormalities. However, the effects of transient and reversible block of pRb function in mature hair cells are not known. Knockdown of pRb function with short hairpin RNA in cultured cells resulted in increased proliferation and failure of contact inhibition (P.W.H., unpublished data). Proliferation was subsequently blocked and contact inhibition was reestablished upon reexpression of Rb after degradation of short hairpin RNA. Similar manipulations may allow cell-cycle reentry of hair cells, and the subsequent return of pRb function may lead to expression of maturation genes (such as prestin) and inhibition of apoptosis. In the vestibular system many hair cells lacking pRb continued to divide up to 6 weeks, survived for 6 months, and remained functional at both the cellular and system levels. Therefore, temporary block of pRb function in vestibular hair cells may lead to regeneration for recovery of vestibular function."

unfortunately, losts of research needed before scientists know how to use drug therapy to re grow stereo cillia

best wishes
mock turtle