AUT00063, AM-101 and VNS are covered in this recent article:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/43843/title/The-Sounds-of-Silence/
"Meanwhile, other researchers are developing therapies that target the brain to treat patients whose tinnitus has progressed to the auditory cortex. One strategy currently under investigation is the manipulation of the potassium channels found throughout the auditory pathway. "[Using] potassium channel modulators, the activity in the central auditory pathway can be changed," Langguth says.
U.K.-based
Autifony Therapeutics began in 2011 as an outgrowth of GlaxoSmithKline's investigation of potassium channels in the auditory system. Autifony CEO Charles Large and his colleague Giuseppe Alvaro are focusing on the development of the previously unexamined Kv3 potassium channels, which exist throughout the brain and in high abundance on the auditory nerve and cortex, allowing the neurons to signal rapidly. After exposure to loud noises, these channels can be damaged and fail to properly conduct ions, making them an ideal drug target for the treatment of tinnitus.
Working with academic collaborators, Autifony researchers developed a small-molecule drug that enhances the function of the Kv3 channels. In rodent models, the drug reduced the spontaneous neural activity in the midbrain auditory system associated with tinnitus. "We're dampening down a spurious activity that is believed to give rise to the phantom perception," says Large. "We have a lot of confidence from our preclinical work that we should see some interesting effects in people with tinnitus."
Autifony researchers are currently recruiting patients for Phase 2 trials in the U.K. In contrast to Auris Medical's target patient population, Autifony focuses on people whose tinnitus is established in the brain and who have had the disorder for at least six months (but no more than 18 months). The treatment is currently taken as a daily oral pill for 28 days, although the length of the treatment course is still under investigation.
"Autifony is really quite unique in having a drug treatment that's been rationally designed around the idea that we can dampen down the hyperexcitability that we see in the nervous system," Large says."