Inner Ear Drug Delivery Method Discovered — Cerebrospinal Fluid Transport

[BobbieJay-1954]

A new discovery out of the University of Rochester Medical Center was recently posted.

An Unexpected Doorway into the Ear Opens New Possibilities for Hearing Restoration

A potential drug delivery system through what's known as the "cochlear aqueduct" may aide in the efforts towards hearing loss and hair cell regeneration.

It was posted on June 28, 2023.

Here's a summary of the article:

• An international team of researchers has developed a new method to deliver drugs into the inner ear.
  
  
• "These findings demonstrate that cerebrospinal fluid transport comprises an accessible route for gene delivery to the adult inner ear and may represent an important step towards using gene therapy to restore hearing in humans," said Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, senior author of the new study, which appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
  
  
• The study was the product of a collaboration between researchers at the two universities and a group led by Barbara Canlon, PhD, in the Laboratory of Experimental Audiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
  
  
• The number of people worldwide predicted to have mild to complete hearing loss is expected to grow to around 2.5 billion by mid-century.
  
  
• In the new study, the researchers describe a little understood passage into the cochlea called the cochlear aqueduct.
  
  
• Suspected to play a role in balancing pressure in the ear, new study shows that that the cochlear aqueduct also acts as a conduit between the cerebrospinal fluid found in the inner ear and the rest of the brain.

What do you guys think about this? Another potential breakthrough? No more regenerative shots through the ear?

 

[DimLeb]

Another "potential" discovery. We will know in 10 years' time at best.

 

[ajc]

Another potential breakthrough?

R U kidding me? I've seen these potential breakthroughs in various areas of medicine for decades, and very few of them come to fruition. It's mostly University PR campaigns, clickbait, raising our hopes, only for them to be dashed later.

 

[Nick47]

potential breakthrough

Yes, but not in the next decade.

 

[chillzR]

I don't even know what to think about this. There have been so many "potential" breakthroughs and none of them have worked.

That they could regenerate hearing in mice doesn't impress me anymore, literally everyone has done this and it hasn't translated into something which worked for humans. I wouldn't be surprised if they could make mice grow wings and spit fire in a couple years. Obviously joking but still... I would love to be wrong and that this benefits us all.

 

[bill 112]

Great! Can't wait for absolutely nothing to come of it, as always. More money in drumming up attention than actually trying to achieve something. They'll milk this for years to keep people busy and in a job.

On a positive note, it's at least nice to see this area being explored. I have been of the opinion for years that all these "therapies" are completely useless if we can't even access what we're trying to heal, being akin to putting stem cells up your ass hoping they fix your eyeballs. Pointless.

 

[JimmyStrong]

The people in this thread are at least honest about how the situation is. This all really doesn't matter... especially since it's in mice.

 

[in_LA]

Yet more money being laundered by universities when there's actual companies trying to find effective treatments. Who knows what the extra money could've done for Frequency Therapeutics or Otonomy.

 

[StoneInFocus]

What do you guys think about this? Another potential breakthrough? No more regenerative shots through the ear?

My understanding is that this particular administration route is better suited for gene therapy than currently available ones. I don't know whether this method holds an edge over traditional routes in regards to regular drugs, but who knows. In any case this discovery will probably aid in the discovery and development of gene therapies for hearing disorders. But in what time range this delivery method will be implemented on a broader scale remains to be seen.