Episode 11: Reviving Retigabine for Tinnitus — Thanos Tzounopoulos, PhD

[Tinnitus Talk]

Hi everybody!

A few years ago, a drug called Retigabine (Trobalt) was taken off the market, in spite of showing some promise in treating tinnitus. Today, Thanos Tzounopoulos is working to redesign the drug to target and silence the tinnitus signal in the brain.

We're very excited that we were (finally) able to get Thanos on the podcast! He was a pleasure to speak with and clearly very passionate about helping people suffering from tinnitus.

In this episode, he explains his underlying theory of how tinnitus works and talks about getting the drug ready for clinical trials in the next two years.

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Listen on:

• Tinnitus Talk Podcast (incl. timestamps and transcript)
  
• SoundCloud
  
• iTunes
  
• Spotify

We welcome any discussion, but please keep the following in mind when commenting:

• Off-topic comments, i.e. not directly responding to the content of the podcast, will be removed. So please do listen before commenting!
• While we welcome constructive criticism on ideas or policies, we do not tolerate direct attacks on individuals.

This episode was produced, as usual, by @Markku and @Hazel and @Autumnly. Transcription was done by @Liz Windsor and the newest member of our podcast team @Andrea Rings. Do you want to volunteer as well? Let us know!

We also thank our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible.

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[Croaker]

Thank you for your work.

So he wants to hit the Kv7.2 and 3 potassium channels? There are potassium channel drugs in phase 2 right now (Xenon's XEN-1101) that target the same channels! Of course they haven't officially named tinnitus as a condition they are looking to address yet.

edit: I don't mean to sound negative, it's great that he's working on treating us specifically. I just think it's a funny situation. At least we know a tinnitus drug is coming, whatever happens with FX-322/Hough Ear Institute/Xenon etc.

 

[aot]

Another great episode!

 

[HootOwl]

Wow, this is just what I needed to understand the voltage gating of the potassium ion channels better. Thanks Hazel!

 

[serendipity1996]

This was a really comprehensive and informative podcast and it's clear Thanos is very enthusiastic about his research. Interesting that he himself also has hearing damage and tinnitus. It's very heartening to hear that everything is going smoothly so far.

 

[DoNotGoGentle]

Thank you for your work.

So he wants to hit the Kv7.2 and 3 potassium channels? There are potassium channel drugs in phase 2 right now (Xenon's XEN-1101) that target the same channels! Of course they haven't officially named tinnitus as a condition they are looking to address yet.

edit: I don't mean to sound negative, it's great that he's working on treating us specifically. I just think it's a funny situation. At least we know a tinnitus drug is coming, whatever happens with FX-322/Hough Ear Institute/Xenon etc.

If I remember correctly, they did state tinnitus a few years back but for some reason they took it off the website.

 

[BigNick]

He sounds pretty confident.

 

[Lucifer]

This is one of the greatest podcast episodes ever. This was very informative. I hope Thanos' drug is one of the cures for tinnitus and hyperacusis.

There are so many drugs currently in clinical trials that can help us. It's good how different companies are doing different things to solve these issues. This gives it a good idea on what works for hyperacusis and tinnitus and what doesn't so in the future they could make a drug even more potent to target those channels.

 

[MBH]

They once thought that Retigabine might work, so now they will tweak it and make it work properly. What a great idea to put it together again.

 

[Joly]

When could this treatment become available?

 

[UHPTS]

Thanks for the podcast! Gives a lot of hope.

Where can I sign up for the clinical trial?

 

[Paulmanlike]

Great podcast! I'll make a few notes from it.

- This drug is still getting designed and it may take 1 to 2 to get into clinical trials. It's important to remember, that just 11% of drug trialed ever reach the market.
- XEN-1101, which is not specifically designed for tinnitus, is in phase 2. It may benefit tinnitus, however it's an epilepsy drug.
- Thanos does not plan to die before a drug has been released for tinnitus. I love his determination, but the odds are against him. It would be one hell of an achievement. Nobel Prize or whatever they give should be awarded.

I would have liked to hear his thoughts on inner hair cell regeneration and whether he thought, if that was successful, if it would reverse tinnitus; as it is only speculation that this will happen. I am curious also as to what his thoughts are on Susan Shore's and Hubert Lim's work and bimodal stimulation. I am always keen to hear what the 'competition' have to say.

 

[Hazel]

- This drug is still getting designed and it may take 1 to 2 to get into clinical trials. It's important to remember, that just 11% of drug trialed ever reach the market.
- XEN-1101, which is not specifically designed for tinnitus, is in phase 2. It may benefit tinnitus, however it's an epilepsy drug.
- Thanos does not plan to die before a drug has been released for tinnitus. I love his determination, but the odds are against him. It would be one hell of an achievement. Nobel Prize or whatever they give should be awarded.

Nice summary, thanks!

I would have liked to hear his thoughts on inner hair cell regeneration and whether he thought, if that was successful, if it would reverse tinnitus; as it is only speculation that this will happen. I am curious also as to what his thoughts are on Susan Shore's and Hubert Lim's work and bimodal stimulation. I am always keen to hear what the 'competition' have to say.

We initially sent him a more extensive list of questions, based on Tinnitus Talk user input, but we scrapped some questions that he did not feel well positioned to answer. I don't recall to be honest if the questions you posed were included there, but might well have been.

Academics usually prefer to stick to their own topic of expertise, which I completely understand from their perspective; they're scientists, so they want to avoid speculation as much as possible.

 

[Gabriel5050]

Really great episode! Thanos came across as very intelligent, enthusiastic and even charismatic.

It was very informative and nice to listen to, once I got used to his accent.

 

[Nobody19]

- Thanos does not plan to die before a drug has been released for tinnitus. I love his determination, but the odds are against him. It would be one hell of an achievement. Nobel Prize or whatever they give should be awarded.

Come one, he isn't that old! :-D

Very interesting podcast. Like others have said, this drug is still in the preclinical stages so there's so much that can still go wrong.

But in any case, he's doing some very interesting science and even if this fails, through his research we'll learn much more about the causes of tinnitus, TTTS and hyperacusis.

 

[Bobbette]

GOLDEN interview!! Gives so much hope!

 

[Maite]

Can this drug help pulsatile tinnitus as well?

 

[ploughna]

@Hazel, this is a great discussion that I've listened to more than once. I wonder if Dr. Tzounopoulos would be willing to provide an update on progress made, hurdles encountered and/or overcome, next steps, etc over the last ~2 years since the podcast interview?

 

[Travis Henry]

When is this coming out? It's 2023. We are dying out here.

 

[Nick47]

When is this coming out? It's 2023. We are dying out here.

@Travis Henry, personally I have zero interest in Prof. Thanos Tzounopoulos' research. I don't think he's going anywhere fast and is just filling his bank account.

 

[awake 44]

@Hazel, I'm also joining the request for an update. Maybe it would be possible for you to ask Dr. Thanos for an update. There has been no news for two years. I checked everywhere, plus I tried to contact Dr. Thanos himself.

 

[Nick47]

I wonder if Dr. Tzounopoulos would be willing to provide an update on progress made, hurdles encountered and/or overcome, next steps, etc over the last ~2 years since the podcast interview?

This is the problem with Prof. Tzounopoulos. Unlike Prof. De Ridder, Prof. Shore, he likes radio silence. We as a community value interaction and updates.

 

[Hazel]

Here is a little update from my discussion with Thanos at the ARO conference.