regrow hair cells critical to reversing hearing loss

That is so cool. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for sharing!!

 

I always thought Frequency Therapuetics was in the lead on this. Honestly I’ve never even heard of this company.

I would love to know if anyone has anymore info on this. Almost sounds to good to be true. Even mentions repairing the nerves of the inner ear. Really amazing stuff.

 

I dont entirely understand the hair cell premise as i had a significant sensorineural hearing loss in the lower registers(verified many times over) which did reverse itself. My doctor did not say, ‘this is a miracle’. Either hearing loss can occur before the hair cells are comoletely destroyed or they can regenerate on their own sometimes.

 

I wonder whether this could also help restore vestibular balance after gentamicin treatment.

 

Human hair cells can not regenerate on their own. Birds and certain other reptiles can. That is what all this research is trying to replicate. Clare - It is very possible that your short term hearing loss was caused by fluid due to inflammation. Once the fluid was removed, your hearing returned.

For many of us, the damage from the fluid killed our hair cells. I have sever hearing loss in my MM ear. 75db loss across the board. Each human is born with 15,000. As they die, they are not replaced.

Hopefully one of these companies can figure it out. Cool stuff!!

 

I read many times that my kind of hearing loss was permanent, period. But it wasnt. In some cases, i know it may be but i would not assume that any sensorinal loss that is reversed is as a result of regeneration of ahair cells by the medicine. I am wondering how they determine that the hair cells have been permanently destroyed for purposes of trying out this new drug.

 

Good question. I have no clue.

Bottom line...I am pulling for one of these companies to figure out how to regrow hair cells. In fact, hundreds of millions of people around the world are too...My hearing never came back.

Hopefully they figure it out. It would be a game changer.

 

I hope they learn how to restore hearing including getting rid of terrible distortione and hypercusis. It would m ean so much to so many.

 

If it is similar to other injuries, and I do not know for certain if it is, there is probably a mechanism that increases sensitivity to remaining ear hairs resulting in limited hearing return. Just my guess.

 

I wasn't very clear in my previous comment. My understanding is that there are hair cells in the cochlea, which is the part of the ear that senses vibrations and turns them into electrical signals to the brain for hearing. There are also hair cells in the semicircular canals that are responsible for sensing and transmitting balance information to the brain. Since the article is about regrowing hair cells to reverse hearing loss, I was wondering if the dark cells that provide balance could also be restored, possibly restoring balance function for those who have had gentamicin treatment on a bad ear and later have bilateral MD. It was just a thought.

 

Clare,


I was thinking the same thing. I have to imagine it would. There are several firms working on this technology right now. I know Frequency Therapeutics is starting trials very soon. They are not allowing MM patients in the trials.

Unfortunately I have to imagine the FDA will be painstakingly slow in moving this along. Hearing Loss advocacy is embarrassingly non existent.

However - the profitability for whatever company gets this going will be off the charts. That is our saving grace. 600,000 worldwide patients is no joke. Fingers crossed these trials go well.

 

600 million - not 600,000

sorry.