Researchers Reverse Hearing Loss by Regenerating Cochlear Hair Cells

There are organs in the body that can regenerate themselves. They include the skin, the liver, and the intestines. This regenerative ability makes it easy for the damaged part of the organs to be replaced by new cell production. However, some other organs of the body find it difficult to produce new cells when damaged, hence, injury to these organs has a greater impact. Organs such as the brain and the ear, among others, have this drawback.

Hearing Loss

However, there are general cells from which other cells that have specialized functions originate. These general cells can regenerate. When harnessed, these cells can help body organs lacking regenerative ability. These general cells are known as stem cells.

The ear

The ear is one of the sense organs that subserves the function of hearing. The ability to hear gives a sense of belonging to everyone as one is aware of what is happening around. With the loss of hearing comes frustration, isolation, and the inability to perceive what is being said in one’s environment. It (hearing loss) can also be associated with dementia. Improving hearing will invariably lead to an improvement in the quality of life of the patients.

Over the years, hearing aids, and implants have been used to aid hearing in people that are suffering from hearing loss. But, none of these can compare to the restoration of hearing ability without any attached instrument.

A beacon of hope

The clinical study by Frequency therapeutics, a biotechnology company offers hope for the restoration of hearing. They developed a drug that helps in the regeneration of the hair cells in the cochlea. The cochlea, which is part of the inner ear, aids in hearing. It has tiny hair cells that help it in carrying out its hearing function. There are about 15,000 hair cells in each human cochlea. These hair cells, when they die, don’t regenerate. Exposure to some chemotherapeutic and antibiotic drugs, loud noise, can cause these cells to die over time, and lead to hearing loss when a significant number of the hair cells are dead.

The company, Frequency, programmed one of stem cells’ descendants – progenitor cells – with a candidate drug. The products from this process were injected into the inner ear for regeneration of the hair cells of the cochlea, thereby improving hearing. These progenitor cells are resident in the inner ear and differentiate into more specialized cells like the hair cells of the cochlea in utero. Before birth, they become dormant, hence, further hair cells generation is not carried out. The company was able to turn these progenitor cells into a large number of hair cells, in the laboratory, after which human clinical trials were carried out.

In their clinical trials, up to 200 patients have been dosed with this candidate drug, with attendant improvement in hearing. This improvement has been noted to be significant as some improvements lasted for nearly two years after injection of just a single dose of the drug. The speech perception of some of the patients improved, making them able to hear discussions happening around them.

Further clinical trials are ongoing among 124 persons whose preliminary results will be coming out next year.

Clinical significance

The sense of hearing is one of the important senses that makes people fit well into society, and live a satisfying life. Restoration of hearing using regenerative therapy is one of the cutting-edge improvements which can lead to a better quality of life among those with hearing loss. To this, the Frequency company offers a beacon of hope.

Conclusion

The stem cell regenerative ability is an important buff that holds promises of great things to come, in disease prevention and treatment, including but not limited to the treatment of hearing loss.