Hough Ear Institute's Hair Cell Regeneration Project

Huh? He doesn't work for Hough Ear Institute anymore.

 

Just curious -- Who is he working for now? Is he still in the Charity/Fundraising biz?

 

He has a LinkedIn but you have to create an account to view who he is working for now.

I’m also curious who he is working for now as well. I don’t think he’s working for another company similar to Hough Ear Institute.

 

He took my money and opened up a mattress shop or what?

At one time, I thought this was promising and had high hopes. I donated a bit.

 

If OPI end up finding a new buyer for NHPN-1010, hopefully they don’t ask for more money like Oblato.

Any idea why they label NHPN-1010 pill as acute only? Wouldn’t it be better for them to label it for long-term sufferers as well? I wonder if that’s why they are having trouble finding a buyer. It’s more convenient to take a pill than get an injection in the ear.

Didn’t Max, the patient who got compassionate use, have tinnitus for over 2 years before trying it and getting good results? Isn’t that considered a long-term sufferer?

 

That was a publicity stunt. One person making a claim is the lowest form of evidence. A case study. Rather meaningless.

 

Oklahoma City researchers working on pill to help cure tinnitus (Lauren Daniels/KFOR)

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A promising drug being developed right here in Oklahoma could help people who suffer from tinnitus, also known as ringing in the ears.

Tinnitus affects more than 50 million Americans, including one prominent Oklahoman who spoke to News 4 about his struggle with it.

When I lay down at night and it’s quiet, it’s not quiet in my head,” said Thomas Hill, CEO of Oklahoma City-based Kimray Incorporated.

Hill has been dealing with Tinnitus for 30 to 40 years.

“It’s a high-pitched, kind of white white brown noise sound that’s in my head all the time,”Hill told News 4. “When it’s loud, it actually interferes with me being able to hear conversations or pick up sounds.”

Hill is passionate about helping those who suffer from similar issues – and serves on the board at the Hough Ear Institute.

Researchers there believe they may have found the key to curing the issue of tinnitus in the form of a pil

“It works by restoring nerve connections in the cochlea and in the brain stem pathway of hearing,” said Dr. Richard Kopke, CEO of the Hough Ear Institute. “By restoring those nerve endings, it restores a balance in the hearing pathway that we think gets rid of or greatly reduces tinnitus

The Hough Ear Institute has been working with a patient who was granted compassionate use for the drug because of his severe case of tinnitus.

“He couldn’t leave his house, he couldn’t go to work, he couldn’t go to a restaurant, he couldn’t be with his friends and he took the medication and now his tinnitus is almost completely gone,” Kopke said.

The drug has a long way to go until it’s available to patients, but Hill and others like him are anxiously awaiting the day it’s available to them.

“It would certainly change my life,” said Hill. “I’m eagerly anticipating that we will get through the clinical trials and the drug will become available.”

It could be five or more years until the drug is available. The Hough Ear Institute is raising money to continue the process to FDA approval.

 

Yes, I saw the MSM release. It smacked of the Frequency Therapeutics stunt they pulled this year. One case study to pull in the gullible masses!

 

“He couldn’t leave his house, he couldn’t go to work, he couldn’t go to a restaurant, he couldn’t be with his friends and he took the medication and now his tinnitus is almost completely gone,” Kopke said.

This has got to be hyperacusis, right? This isn’t tinnitus?

 

Has anyone tried a way of contacting Max personally to see if he was suffering from hyperacusis (noxacusis) as well, through Facebook or other social media?

So far the news articles and Hough Ear Institute (HEI) only mention about his tinnitus improving but comments he made such as “couldn’t leave his home” is a strong indication of hyperacusis (noxacusis) unless he was experiencing reactive tinnitus.

I don’t think HEI will respond to that question so the only way to really know is to contact Max.

 

Tinnitus can easily make someone not able to leave their home. It can cause feelings of isolation and depression to such a degree that you don't want to face the world.

Max does not exist, a sock puppet for HEI's PR campaign.

 

On the YouTube video it was mentioned that he suffered from unbearable pain in moderate level noise environments.

This has got to be a strong indication of hyperacusis (noxacusis) but hyperacusis was neither stated in the news articles or by HEI themselves officially.

That’s why I’m hoping someone from here has reached out to Max personally to see if what he was experiencing was hyperacusis (noxacusis) or reactive tinnitus.

 

You can Hough and Puff all you want.

 

I'm not interested in some 'case study.'

If they want funds, show me a successful human clinical trial in chronic patients, where I can dive into the detail. Grabbing a member of the public and getting them to sell the product is just nonsense.

Remember Frequency Therapeutics?

You can fool me once...

 

Hough Ear Institute published a paper about the case study.

They mention that "his auditory dysfunction, including left ear tinnitus and hyperacusis, also kept him housebound and prevented socialization, even after pursuing numerous sound and behavioral therapies over two years."

But yes, we can only know whether or not he had noxacusis by asking him directly about his symptoms.

The article mentions that "after three weeks of treatment with OKN-007, the patient reported subjective improvement in his tinnitus. After completing eight weeks of OKN-007 and NAC treatment, his tinnitus slightly worsened but not back to the original intensity and severity."

The article only reports Tinnitus Handicap Index (THI) scores 6 months after completion of the treatment. It would be interesting to see the THI scores at week 3 and week 8 during treatment.

I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread but it important to note that Max had a tumor on his left vestibulocochlear nerve. His tinnitus symptoms drastically worsened after removal of the tumor. The article doesn't mention the recording of THI scores before the operation, so all that we know is that NHPN-1010 ameliorates left-retromastoid-craniotomy-and-subtotal-removal-of left-vestibular schwannoma induced tinnitus.

Although the wording in the article strongly suggests the hyperacusis was a result from the removal of the tumor, it is not entirely clear whether he already suffered from hyperacusis symptoms before the operation. As the article mentions that the patient was no longer homebound from hyperacusis, it most likely means that "over two years" refers to two years before the drug treatment, which would mean around 18th of June, 2019, between three and five months before his operation. But "over two years" is most likely to mean "over the course of 2 years after the treatment."

"It is well-known and documented that if there is only damage to the auditory nerve for example from vestibular schwannoma or temporal bone fracture which result in sensorineural hearing loss, the hearing loss is neural and not cochlear (not sensory). Therefore, the DPOAE outer hair cell response will remain intact. In this patient’s case, the DPOAEs were present at all frequencies prior to surgery and one month after surgery. However, they started to become absent at different frequencies until they were only present at one frequency 21 months after surgery."

In all likelihood, if Max truly suffered from noxacusis, his symptoms would start around the onset of outer hair cell damage. What is really confusing is that we see the amplitude decreasing in the FIRST measurement of DPOAEs after the surgery, contrary to what the article seems to suggest. Maybe I am missing something here? Furthermore, the drug treatment did increase the amplitude of DPOAEs. Would that mean that OKN-007 and NAC are NOT effective in restoring outer hair cells? Would restoring outer hair cells help noxacusis at all?

 

Correct. I was joking.

 

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea about that journal. It officially states that he suffered from hyperacusis which was not present in the news articles or on HEI website.

If his hyperacusis improved since there were no OHC regrowth, I wonder if the reason for the improvement was the regrowth in ribbon synapses in the IHC or OHC.

Any idea why he would experience a worsening in his tinnitus after 8 weeks of treatment? I wonder if he was exposed to any loud noise at that time which may have caused it.

 

Wow, I hate these people LOL. Let’s do a study on one person. If they did me and a few others like they were supposed to, they would actually have good data. LOL. Morons.

Paul Fuchs suggested you could also get hyperacusis from synapse damage. So on theory it would help.

All I can say is: nobody donate money to Hough Ear Institute! These people will eat it and never give it back. No reputable company begs for money like this.

 

Do you think it would be possible for some other company to do their own clinical trials without HEI or OPI involvement?

A different company could theoretically start their own clinical trials with NAC and Disufenton sodium (HPN-07)? Do you reckon HEI or OPI would sue that company for trying to start their own clinical trials without their permission?

 

Yeah, they would definitely sue without a doubt. This company has been holding onto this drug for over a decade and won’t do anything about it. They won’t let anyone work with it and it’s just collecting dust.

 

Do you reckon Spiral Therapeutics would also have the same issue if they were to start their own clinical trials using the reformulated OTO-413? Or do you think, since they are using a different delivery method, they won’t encounter any issues?

 

The patent will expire in a few years too. Complete bunch of you know what!

 

Not sure who knows. They haven’t posted any more information about their delivery method. Maybe it will work. The Hough Ear Institute guy seemed pretty dedicated to helping fix hearing loss. Only way is to wait and find out.

Then they will ask for more money to renew the patent lol. Wonder how much they would sell it for.

 

I have no idea. I think he may be on LinkedIn. He spoke to me on the phone for quite a while one day. He's a really nice guy.

I think Hough Ear Institute is legitimate but it's a non-profit that doesn't have operating capital. I also understood through Justin that this drug was previously a candidate for another disease (Parkinson's or seizures maybe? I forget) and the people who took it mentioned improvements in their tinnitus as a side effect. Why that wouldn't streamline testing is beyond me... they may have been trying to alter the recipe.

I truly don't know anything else. I had donated 100 bucks because I had believed in their candidate. That was maybe 3 years ago.

 

I suppose we do not know the precise part of NAC versus OKN-007 in treating the tinnitus and hyperacusis of Max.

Have you ever considered taking high doses of NAC, maybe in combination with other supplements or drugs?

 

I was reading through some of my old posts on Tinnitus Talk and suddenly remembered about this thread.

There have been no updates in this thread for almost a year?

 

They are doing well... in an alternate universe, where somebody thought giving them $500 million was a good idea. Of course, they're fast at spending it.

 

There is steady demand for mattresses in Vegas, I guess...