Currently, only hearing aids can compensate for hearing loss. But in the future, a regenerative medicine approach may well permanently restore hearing by recreating lost hearing cells.
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Not hearing your interlocutor in a noisy environment is the daily life of many people with hearing loss. It can appear suddenly following an auditory trauma or gradually with age or repeated exposure to sounds too strong.
These traumas destroy the hair cells of inner ear. They are grouped together in a structure of the cochlea, called the organ of Corti, which picks up sounds thanks to stereocilia on their surface. The vibrations of the’air perceived by the eyelashes are transformed into comprehensible information for the brain thanks to ion channels and the release of glutamate, a neurotransmitter. At birth, the human being has about 15,000 of them, it is our maximum hearing capital which declines during life; hair cells do not regenerate.
Rather than hearing aids, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) relies on a different approach, called regenerative. The company Frequency Therapeuticssupported by the famous American institute, has developed a molecule which stimulates the progenitor cells of the ear, derived from stem cellsso that they specialize and synthesize the stereocilia that pick up sounds.
An approach proven in clinical trials
The molecule, FX-322, injected directly into the eardrumhas enabled patients with acquired sensorineural hearing loss – due to the loss of hair cells – to better perceive a discussion, even in a noisy environment. A single injection is sufficient to observe results that can last two years. A second clinical trial, phase 2, is underway to confirm the benefits of FX-322 on acquired sensorineural hearing loss. The scientists of Frequency Therapeutics is currently recruiting 124 adults with acquired hearing loss from several US hospitals.
” I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10 or 15 years, because of the resources invested in this area and advances in science, we can get to the point where hearing loss reversal is similar to Lasik surgery, where in one or two hours you can completely restore your vision. I think we will see the same for hearing loss », enthuses Jeff Karpone of the founders of Frequency Therapeutics and member of Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology.
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