Autifony Therapeutics Phase I Study for AUT00063, for the Treatment of Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

Exactly where are we with this treatment at the moment? Have human efficiacy trials began? I struggle to get excited about something that, for all we know, could end up doing cock all. It's good to know treatments are being investigated but I try not to get my hopes up too high...
 
I didn't mean it like that-- I'd swallow 100 pills a day for silence... I was more thinking of the people who take place in the trial-- if they get autofony and it works- then after the trial is complete they'll have tinnitus again until the drug is approved, if the drug doesn't do something that permanently changes the perception.. in the rodent studies I'm not sure if they were taken off the drug and tested for tinnitus at a later date, etc-- just curious if anyone has an idea
 
I didn't mean it like that-- I'd swallow 100 pills a day for silence... I was more thinking of the people who take place in the trial-- if they get autofony and it works- then after the trial is complete they'll have tinnitus again until the drug is approved, if the drug doesn't do something that permanently changes the perception.. in the rodent studies I'm not sure if they were taken off the drug and tested for tinnitus at a later date, etc-- just curious if anyone has an idea
We don't have the answer to that. You should email Dr.Large about it.
 
Exactly where are we with this treatment at the moment? Have human efficiacy trials began? I struggle to get excited about something that, for all we know, could end up doing cock all. It's good to know treatments are being investigated but I try not to get my hopes up too high...
If you read Autifony's website and the history of this thread it will tell you exactly where the trials have got to. There has been no official testing of efficacy on humans yet, just safety testing on humans without tinnitus to check no serious side effects.
 
Just an update for you guys:

Dear Dan,

Thankyou for your email and your interest in Autifony's clinical trial of AUT00063 for tinnitus. I apologise for the delay in replying to you; as you can imagine, we have received a number of contacts regarding this trial, and I want to ensure that I can respond personally to each one. Autifony's trial is planned to start in September/October this year and will involve a number of UK sites. More information about the trial will be made available via Autifony's web site, although it is unlikely we will be ready to release information about the sites or enrollment in the trial much before August. Please do check back with the website at that time.

My best regards,
Charles Large

Charles Large, PhD.
Chief Executive Officer
Autifony Therapeutics Limited
 
Just an update for you guys:

Dear Dan,

Thankyou for your email and your interest in Autifony's clinical trial of AUT00063 for tinnitus. I apologise for the delay in replying to you; as you can imagine, we have received a number of contacts regarding this trial, and I want to ensure that I can respond personally to each one. Autifony's trial is planned to start in September/October this year and will involve a number of UK sites. More information about the trial will be made available via Autifony's web site, although it is unlikely we will be ready to release information about the sites or enrollment in the trial much before August. Please do check back with the website at that time.

My best regards,
Charles Large

Charles Large, PhD.
Chief Executive Officer
Autifony Therapeutics Limited
Well done, Dan. Quick question: did you specifically ask about the U. K. locations, or was that something Mr. Large just volunteered? I hope they're on track for the U. S. trials. I mean, we'll all be watching Peter Capaldi simultaneously, so why not?

And I know the U. S. trials are about age-related hearing loss, before anyone feels the need to chime in on that.
 
@dan Thanks for the update!
 
After my last post I stumbled on this excellent article from The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/09/090209fa_fact_groopman?currentPage=all. Nothing new, but it explains how they test animals for tinnitus. Basically you take a normal rat and play it a sound, then a pause, then a loud noise, which startles the rat. You then play a sound, no pause, and the loud noise. The rat has less of a startle response when the pause is in place, because it's being cued that something is about to happen.

When you take a rat with tinnitus, it always startles the same, pause or no pause. The tinnitus sound fills in the silence, so it doesn't pick up on the cue. Kind of helps to know how it's done. You can picture the rat after administration of AU00063...sound, pause, bang! Hey, he didn't jump as much....

Bless their furry little hides.
 
@rtwombly ,Yeah I asked when where and how- so that's all he can say at this point.

Nothing asked on "chronic - acute'' ? would like to hear this standpoint on it. Although if they target the brain it seems it really doesn`t matter anyway. Maybe it is my naivity or hope but I`m pretty confident that if this works it will work for all of us. Nevertheless, i would like to ask him in an email.
 
I see no difference between 5 minutes after my T onset and my status now after 8 months.
My brain is making noise. It did it in the acute stage and it is doing now the same sound.
Something has to calm down overactive neurons in the brain. It doesn't matter if they doing it only for 5 minutes or 20 years. But that is just my opinion.
Nevertheless I am a little bit pessimistic when it comes to drugs treating the brain.
But I don't know what AUT00063 exactly does.
So let's keep some hope.
 
I see no difference between 5 minutes after my T onset and my status now after 8 months.
My brain is making noise. It did it in the acute stage and it is doing now the same sound.
Something has to calm down overactive neurons in the brain. It doesn't matter if they doing it only for 5 minutes or 20 years.

This is a great point. I agree totally.
I think the main difference between acute tinnitus and chronic tinnitus is that chronic tinnitus lasts longer (d'oh!) because something about it is more aversive or it is further hampered by say hyperacusis. It's simply a lottery whether you have mild tones or jet-turbine blackboard nails, but tinnitus is tinnitus and, fingers crossed, Autifony will CURE tinnitus!

I've had two different levels of tinnitus and believe me the softer version was much easier to habituate. It's dumb when people say "yeah tinnitus, i got that, no problem" or you hear amazing 'success stories' from people who only ever had it for a few months. While tinnitus can be soft or harsh, acute or chronic, Autifony will not care what type or duration you have, it will just CURE tinnitus! Yes I said it twice because it sounds SO good.
 
I think the definition of acute or chronics has no real relation to the etiology of the tinnitus. Acute < 3 months, acute >3 months. It is just a definition that has very little actual meaning.

To be brutally honest, I think is is unlikely that autifony will bring the "magic" cure. I guess in the same way benzo's are no magic cure for panic attacks. In my best guess the autifony therapie will co-exist with current management strategies. A large group of people suffering from clinical significant are hyper monitoring their beep. Autifony or not....you will probably still need to take care of the learned reflex.
 
I see no difference between 5 minutes after my T onset and my status now after 8 months.
My brain is making noise. It did it in the acute stage and it is doing now the same sound.
Something has to calm down overactive neurons in the brain. It doesn't matter if they doing it only for 5 minutes or 20 years. But that is just my opinion.
Your experience was very different from mine, evidently. My sounds change on a daily basis, can be completely unilateral or in my whole head, and occasionally switch ears. This is a marked change from early onset, where it was strictly in my right ear, and only one discernible tone. My loudness is also less than it has been, and I went through a period of hyperacusis along with the tinnitus.

These changes are, at least in theory, due to brain plasticity. The brain adapts, and the brain of a person with 1 month of tinnitus behind them could be very different from a person with 6 months, or 10 years. On the other hand, given the variability of people's symptoms, I do agree with you that we really won't know if the time span matters or not until somebody tries.

But why the sudden negativity on this thread? We're talking about a carefully targeted drug that operates according to a well-documented and popular theory on how tinnitus works, and has been successful in treating animals. Diseases do get cured, and even those that cannot at present be eliminated are often put into remission with the application of the proper therapy. There's no need to lose hope when we have yet to receive anything but good news from the tests that have been conducted.

My thinking is, even if for some reason AU00063 isn't the cure for all sufferers, it will bring us closer to understanding what might work, and therefore closer to the hoped-for cure. One should never put all one's eggs in one basket, but when an outcome is inevitable, an occasional delay makes it no less so.
 
Your experience was very different from mine, evidently. My sounds change on a daily basis, can be completely unilateral or in my whole head, and occasionally switch ears. This is a marked change from early onset, where it was strictly in my right ear, and only one discernible tone. My loudness is also less than it has been, and I went through a period of hyperacusis along with the tinnitus.

These changes are, at least in theory, due to brain plasticity. The brain adapts, and the brain of a person with 1 month of tinnitus behind them could be very different from a person with 6 months, or 10 years. On the other hand, given the variability of people's symptoms, I do agree with you that we really won't know if the time span matters or not until somebody tries.

But why the sudden negativity on this thread? We're talking about a carefully targeted drug that operates according to a well-documented and popular theory on how tinnitus works, and has been successful in treating animals. Diseases do get cured, and even those that cannot at present be eliminated are often put into remission with the application of the proper therapy. There's no need to lose hope when we have yet to receive anything but good news from the tests that have been conducted.

My thinking is, even if for some reason AU00063 isn't the cure for all sufferers, it will bring us closer to understanding what might work, and therefore closer to the hoped-for cure. One should never put all one's eggs in one basket, but when an outcome is inevitable, an occasional delay makes it no less so.

Honestly, my experience has been pretty consistent. Anytime it felt like it changed, I could almost 100% attribute it to focus levels of mood swings. It started off as a pure tone, then later on it sounded like it had changed to one of those shock systems (like the electrified metallic balls that have lightning zap off them) which freaked me out... but when I really listen for it, almost everytime, it sounds just like a pure tone. Still.
 
Just to add I did ask Dr Large in an email if the trial would only be taking -12months t people and also if this meant that aut' may not work on chronic t....he answered my email but skirted around answering the question directly and just stated pretty much the same as he did in his response to Dan.

I still remain cautiously optimistic...at least we should know more by August as the email Dan posted states....fingers (and all toes) crossed.

Rhea x
 
My grandmother (whom I never met) died of a disease that penicillin would have cured today. And my aunt died from a form of breast cancer that would today be considered treatable with a high probability of success. All I am saying is never say never and none of us really knows what may or may not happen this year, next year or some time. And how subjectively positive or negative this thread and/or the people contributing to it are ultimately has no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the clinical trials. They are what they are and the results will be whatever transpires. That said, emotionally, I have fingers and toes crossed!
 
My grandmother (whom I never met) died of a disease that penicillin would have cured today. And my aunt died from a form of breast cancer that would today be considered treatable with a high probability of success. All I am saying is never say never and none of us really knows what may or may not happen this year, next year or some time. And how subjectively positive or negative this thread and/or the people contributing to it are ultimately has no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the clinical trials. They are what they are and the results will be whatever transpires. That said, emotionally, I have fingers and toes crossed!
Exactly, these trials are gonna do what they're gonna do regardless of any opinion stated therefore i hope they beat the shit outta T and break it down good! ---- and if it doesn't, I hope it atleast provides the lack of imput or imformation needed for the next drug in line, and so on and on until they get it RIGHT. But for now GO AUTIFONY!!! :)
 
Shenandoah wrote:
Maybe I read too quickly, I didn't catch anything that lead me to believe it has been successful in relieving sufferers of T, am I mistaken?


Have to agree with you, many years ago I read of a significant breakthrough, in fact I can't remember the correct term but it was equivalent to the best thing since sliced bread! was coming our way which would revolutionise the way tinnitus was treated. That breakthrough was ADP or as it's commonly known Neuromonics and many know or believe that it's no better than a cheap mp3 player but it costs around $5k. So far(unless I have missed something) from what I have read there is nothing to suggest AUT00063 will cure tinnitus or significantly reduce the volume so I will save my excitement(or disappointment) until the final stages of the trial are complete.
 
@shenandoah
It hasn`t relieved any human sufferers because no one has ever tried it on them. They did cure rats, which are mammals too with similar working inner ears. Thats why everyone is excited. If you read the whole scientific paper you might feel the excitment bubbling up ;)
 

Log in or register to get the full forum benefits!

Register

Register on Tinnitus Talk for free!

Register Now