There will never be a hair cell regeneration cure for us. Not in our lifespan! If we are lucky they figure out how to get rid of those crazy neurons in the brain that cause T. That is, if we are lucky.
Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration — Maybe We Can Know More
- Thread starter Hopeful
- Start date
There will never be a hair cell regeneration cure for us. Not in our lifespan! If we are lucky they figure out how to get rid of those crazy neurons in the brain that cause T. That is, if we are lucky.
MemberI'm sure tinnitus will be sorted. As well, to be honest..Trobalt lowers t already, so that's proof enough there's gonna be a treatment to lower it at the very least, which is good enough for me.
Maybe you are right....but maybe it will arrive in 10 years... If there is some potential in the genvec trial, where they can restore some hearing a kindbof therapybis likely to reach the market in 2025.... (all speculation)
Parallel of Genvec there is expected to have further trials in Molecular Therapy, I guess within the next 5 years...
Last I remember Novartis said 5 years if CGF166 works. Phase 2 ends end of 2017 and then phase 3 would be 2020 or so Again this is only if this treatment if effective. It not its going to be a while. Even if CGF166 doesnt work they now know how to get a virus into the ear so now they just have to figure out what to put in it to make our ears work again.
Yeah, they said that, but how to get to the inner ear being more crucial than the drug itself escapes me BIG TIME! The first step? Ok. Let's give it 10 years IF the drug works. If not, more years. Also, this addresses deaf people, let's assume it works, they have to move to Tinnitus guys... I think it will take some time. Unless things are about to speed up since many companies deal with hearing problems nowadays. But we haven't seen results yet, so it is all speculation.
First hope lies in drugs found by communities such as this, then the first tinnitus drugs (in about 5 years) and then probably comes the total cure but that part is still behind.
That's like having figured out how to smuggle drugs but not only not having any drugs to smuggle but not even knowning how to start to producing them, let alone what kind of effects the drugs should possess in order to get any buyers.
Exactly! They can easily inject through the round window of the cochlea anything.
Some new findings from Belgium:
http://www.giga.ulg.ac.be/jcms/c_22...a-new-strategy-which-could-treat-hearing-loss
http://www.giga.ulg.ac.be/jcms/c_22...a-new-strategy-which-could-treat-hearing-loss
Hair cell regeneration seems to be the focus but I do not see how these new cells will have any functionality if they are not connected to neurons. Do they think that neurons will magically sprout and connect to the newly cells? Will the cells respond to the same frequencies as the old ones? If not then you might have to relearn how to hear again.
To me, this is a 2 sided problem. Mechanical and neuronal. It seems most of the research is focused on the former.
Frequency si determined by location of HCs in cochlea, basilar membrane dissasemble incoming sound to frequency parts (basilar membrane is in fact biologic fourier transform).
I asked harvard researchers if all HC are same or are they physically differ according to their freqency (location in cochlea). They answered that they differ, so it could be much harder if they had to regenerate every HC one by one to their proper properties. But maybe it wont be necessary, they will work somehow without that (we hope
.The reconnection of new HC to nerve is also question for me, but it is probably automatic becouse mouse models with gene terapics worked.
I doubt it is automatic. It just doesn't happen naturally. They only things that do regenerate are the dendrites. If the body of the neuron is damaged badly enough, they're gone.
So unless there are still some dormant neurons sitting right next to the dead hair cells it's not happening. This might be the case in the gene therapy study since I don't know the delay between the induced hearing loss and the procedure.
For those who've had hearing loss for years I doubt such re-innervation would take place spontaneaously. I would be thrilled to be proven wrong tough.
There is a debate on the subject: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/research-aims-to-reverse-noise-induced-hearing-loss.8270/
There is an effort to reconnect neurons to hair cells (G. Corfas) something that had been proven successful in rats by increasing the level of the protein neurotrophin 3.
http://www.claimseval.com/research-aims-to-reverse-noise-induced-hearing-loss/
This along with atoh1 and hair cell regeneration seem to be the therapies aiming to cure hearing loss. There may be a combined therapy of the above 2 in the future.
No recent development have been mentioned anywhere in the internet though... Trial testing in humans has already begun for hair regeneration while professor Corfas' ribbon synapses re-connection seems to remain on animal testing and research state.
We are still many years away...
There is an effort to reconnect neurons to hair cells (G. Corfas) something that had been proven successful in rats by increasing the level of the protein neurotrophin 3.
http://www.claimseval.com/research-aims-to-reverse-noise-induced-hearing-loss/
This along with atoh1 and hair cell regeneration seem to be the therapies aiming to cure hearing loss. There may be a combined therapy of the above 2 in the future.
No recent development have been mentioned anywhere in the internet though... Trial testing in humans has already begun for hair regeneration while professor Corfas' ribbon synapses re-connection seems to remain on animal testing and research state.
We are still many years away...
Realistically, it's probably a few decades away until such treatments become available for the average joe out there. Doctors might refuse to give you this treatment if your only complaint is tinnitus. Also, it most likely won't be reimbursed by insurance if you are not legally deaf.
yes, they once the regeneration process is started, they reconnect to neurons and hearing nerve automaticlly.
The regeneration process cycle is a fix programm, it's "just"blocked in the adult mammal inner ear for some reason.
To release this break it's a very complex problem, but there are some stunning results in the lab.
Ofcourse, it's all speculation if there will be some regeneration in the clinic in the foreseeable future, but there is at least hope. At some point, it would be great to get something even it's "just 20-30 db.
At least, there is a running clinical trial in hair cell regeneration, that's a huge step already.
I guess this is well above my pay grade. I cannot see how nerve endings can come back and reattach to the regenerated cilia if they are thought to be destroyed along with its partnered hair cell after hearing damage.
Surely the process does not induce regeneration of both specialized types of cells as the differentiation pathways must not be the same. The inner ear is made with a lot of different cells, all having different pathways. From the way I understand it they are only able to unlock the pathway that causes supporting cells to divide and differentiate into cilia.
Surely the process does not induce regeneration of both specialized types of cells as the differentiation pathways must not be the same. The inner ear is made with a lot of different cells, all having different pathways. From the way I understand it they are only able to unlock the pathway that causes supporting cells to divide and differentiate into cilia.
I asked a hair cell researcher, if regenerared hair cells will reconnect and integrate once they have to be triggered for regrow.
The bigger problem is to achieve hair cell regeneration in the adult cochlea in a useful number and "keep" them alive.
But yes, so far we don't know how all this really works and if it really works, so any cautions and doubts are ok.
It's a big hope for hard of hearing people and it's encouraging how this research developed in the last 10 years.
Some good news can make my day!
The reason they don't stay alive is probably because they do not connect with the CNS. So they are essentially useless and might even impair neighboring cells function and end up waning/dying.
Basically i believe there is 2 ideas here. One is to grove hair cells and then transplant them to the inner-ear. The problem here is as mentioned to keep them alive and that it´s also known that there is different hair cells for different frequencies. It´s most likely a mess to get it all right.
The main approach right now it that they know that the supporting cells in the inner ear a stem cell like. They are now trying to trigger them do divide into hair cells. That could possibly happen in to ways. A seam cells is transforming direct to a hair cell or to trigger it to divide to a new supporting cell and a hair cells. This is pretty much how birds is doing it. This is most likely the best approach and would possibly solve a lot of the issues compared to transplantation.
Sometime in week 15 the fetus develops the hearing. What we know is at that time something is triggering hair cells growth and something is turning it of. Possibly a lot of answers could be found here. I do not know exactly but research around fetus i possible not the easiest and holds a lot of ideological aspekts.
As a side not I know that some leading researchers are quite sure that hair cells in humans actually grov but in a very very solv tempo. So slow that it is hard to prove but they have high resolution photos that actually indicates this. if it happens it´s likely in the lower frequencies. The alos believe that it sounds unlikely that all the hair cells in a 100 year old man could be from fetus/birth. Some type of regeneration must take place during that 100 years.
Knowing all this and assuming it´s about right there must be a way to trigger this process and speed it up so it makes a difference. The first big milestone is to get this supporting cell in a adult to divide into a hair cell. That would be a gigant step forward and possibly also a Nobel Price achievement.
Lets keep our finger crossed for the 2 big initiatives for this to happened.
http://www.otostem.org/
http://hearinghealthfoundation.org/hearing_restoration_project
The main approach right now it that they know that the supporting cells in the inner ear a stem cell like. They are now trying to trigger them do divide into hair cells. That could possibly happen in to ways. A seam cells is transforming direct to a hair cell or to trigger it to divide to a new supporting cell and a hair cells. This is pretty much how birds is doing it. This is most likely the best approach and would possibly solve a lot of the issues compared to transplantation.
Sometime in week 15 the fetus develops the hearing. What we know is at that time something is triggering hair cells growth and something is turning it of. Possibly a lot of answers could be found here. I do not know exactly but research around fetus i possible not the easiest and holds a lot of ideological aspekts.
As a side not I know that some leading researchers are quite sure that hair cells in humans actually grov but in a very very solv tempo. So slow that it is hard to prove but they have high resolution photos that actually indicates this. if it happens it´s likely in the lower frequencies. The alos believe that it sounds unlikely that all the hair cells in a 100 year old man could be from fetus/birth. Some type of regeneration must take place during that 100 years.
Knowing all this and assuming it´s about right there must be a way to trigger this process and speed it up so it makes a difference. The first big milestone is to get this supporting cell in a adult to divide into a hair cell. That would be a gigant step forward and possibly also a Nobel Price achievement.
Lets keep our finger crossed for the 2 big initiatives for this to happened.
http://www.otostem.org/
http://hearinghealthfoundation.org/hearing_restoration_project
Good thoughts.
I think there are 3 stories about hair cell regeneration.
1. Gene Therapy (which is in clinical trial led by Novartis)
It's proof of concept and I think not applicable on a wide range of people.
But if there is some achievment in hearing enhancement, they can probably optimize
the tools. It would show in some way, that cells normally not regenerate can be triggered for
regrow
http://www.novartis.com/stories/discovery/2014-11-hearing-loss.shtml
2. Molecular Therapy
using drugs to trigger hair cells are heavy research of Harvard, Massachussetts Eye & Eer and
Audion Therapeutics, so maybe we can see some advances torward clinics in the next 3-5 years
http://www.audiontherapeutics.com/
http://www.masseyeandear.org/research/otolaryngology/research-areas/hearing-and-deafness/
3. Stem Cell Therapy
Big effort of Stanford Initiavtive to cure Hearing Loss
It's probably the most complicated but if working the best solution
https://hearinglosscure.stanford.edu/
http://hellerlab.stanford.edu/
This is very interesting. Could support a drug induced regeneration as a therapy, if you know how to speed up the process. Also, could explain why some people with T get better, or why some people get rid of their T and H altogether.
This is all good research centers an projects in the US but do not forget Europe. There are 3-4 very skilled labs. I gigant step forward could happened there as well. As I understand it a major advantage in Europe is that it is much easier to work on human material (Most research teams are just next door to the central hospitals). In th US i believe this is much more regulated.
http://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/viewfactsheet.aspx?csid=94
- NIH-supported scientists have demonstrated that mouse embryonic stem cells can develop into functional, immature hair cells in the laboratory. The ability to re-grow hair cells will not restore hearing without properly reconnected nerve endings. NIH-supported scientists found that newly formed hair cells and nerve cells successfully reestablish connections in an organized way, although the reconnected nerve endings are simpler than those generated during normal development. This and other research will help reveal how nerve cells form connections with newly generated hair cells.
ruben ruiz
Member
Genvec showed that human cadavers (ex-vivo) regrew hair cells *and* reattached to nerves. So this has sort of been tested on humans already (dead ones and in a very controlled environment). But it looks pretty convincing to me. I think the nerves will reattach. Perhaps not all but a good percentage. And I'm sure this will pretty much reduce or eliminate T once a stimulus is received by the brain.
Yes, there should be a link to the video (on this site) that Genvec (or lead investigator) gave to the FDA Q&A panel. They were very clear on how they got to the point where they are with lots of great slides (including slides showing testing on ex-vivo human cochleas). I know tomytl had that link too. Probably he can post it here if it is still up.
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