Sound Pharmaceuticals (SPI-5557 & SPI-1005)

Meniere's disease affects the low frequencies. This should result in low-frequency tinnitus.

 

Did an acoustic trauma cause your tinnitus?

I have secondary Endolymphatic Hydrops caused by an acoustic trauma.

 

→ Sound Pharma Announces Phase 3 Study Completion of SPI-1005 for the Treatment of Meniere’s Disease

 

They will test SPI-1005 for tinnitus next year.

 

I'm very surprised. CHRONIC tinnitus?

I see no indication as to how SPI-1005, a systemic anti-inflammatory, could be beneficial for tinnitus.

 

So, I take it the drug was successful in the clinical trial. It would be great if this drug worked on non-Meniere's tinnitus sufferers, too.

 

Why do you think that? If it works for Meniere's disease-related tinnitus, it could work for garden-variety tinnitus, too.

 

Isn’t the new compound Ebselen supposed to target neuroinflammation? If it proves successful for Meniere’s disease, why wouldn't it work for us?

 

I think the results were positive. If it were negative, no private company would publish it so quickly.

 

We will see.

 

In Meniere's, there is usually inflammation in the cochlea due to the hydrops that cause its membranes to expand and then break, etc. That causes irreversible damage that stays even when the inflammation goes away.

That's probably what happens with most tinnitus—some kind of event causes damage to the cochlea, and then the brain's reaction causes the tinnitus. Or at least that's how most sources explain it.

If some kind of inflammation is always present in all tinnitus cases and bringing it down can improve it, then the drug may help us all. But that's unknown to me (and anyone in the world, for that matter, lol).

 

I am *convinced* there's major inflammation going on in my body. Granted, tinnitus is one of a handful of debilitating things I contend with, but if I take Tylenol or Advil or anything that reduces inflammation, not only am I knocked out within an hour, I will sleep like a baby in a way that only happens nowadays with one of those medications.

 

Me too. I suspect I have some chronic inflammatory condition. Pollen counts and weather conditions somewhat modulate my tinnitus. That convinces me that it's not entirely "in my brain" due to missing signal input.

 

My tinnitus reduces for the period when I have a sore throat or head cold, so...

 

That's interesting. Mine does so too.

 

Wish I could say the same. Whenever I get sick or just really stuffy, mine goes haywire. Getting severely sick is what actually gave me a permanent worsening last year.

 

I wonder whether a short round of Prednisone would have an effect?

 

I reached out to Sound Pharmaceuticals. They said they think SPI-1005 could help noise-induced and ototoxicity-induced tinnitus.

Here’s fingers crossed!

 

This feels like a good first target for Tinnitus Quest to fund a tinnitus trial on SPI-1005, especially if it has gotten this far, and they seem to be already somewhat well-funded and well-established.

Tagging @Hazel & @Markku.

 

Very interesting. Can you share that correspondence with @Hazel and @Markku?

 

Yes, of course, I can forward the email if that helps the founders. I was pretty surprised to get a response, to be honest, but maybe the company is open to discussing their work, and a Tinnitus Talk Podcast episode could be on the cards — and valuable.

 

Tinnitus Quest has not raised any funds yet, so any money raised needs to be spent wisely and carefully. Allocating funds to the right initiatives at the right time can be the difference between a successful treatment and a failed trial. We've all made mistakes in the past and will undoubtedly make them again in the future. But in theory, do you believe there is enough evidence and rationale to justify funding such a trial?

In this specific case, funding isn't necessary because the pharmaceutical company already holds the drug and intends to run a tinnitus trial.

Personally, I believe that for chronic tinnitus, the evidence supporting this treatment is weak. At its core, the drug is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.

It appears to have otoprotective properties, potentially reducing hearing damage if taken before or immediately after an 'event.' In Meniere's disease, patients experience a series of ongoing events that gradually damage the hearing organ, often leading to both temporary and permanent hearing loss, particularly affecting the lower frequencies. This treatment seems more suited to addressing those events. However, offering it years later, given that it has no known restorative properties, seems unlikely to provide significant benefit.

 

FWIW, I did what I do for my job and got into his LinkedIn comments for more detail on what @Tim Dziwisch asked

 

In theory, it could be prescribed for Meniere's disease. However, if the formulation they plan to use for noise-induced or other types of tinnitus is the same as for Meniere's, we could potentially find a willing doctor to try it ourselves. I'm just considering how someone might avoid the long wait for another trial to conclude.

 

I experience the same.

 

That is great news! Thank you!

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Wash it off before it dries.
- Monica Lewinsky

 

It will be available in 2 years.

 

Is this your personal estimate, or do you have some information from a good source?

 

With all respect, personally, and even though your opinion might be rational, I think we should stop spreading negativity on Tinnitus Talk.

Even the sponsor of this drug (if I understood it correctly) said that it might help noise-induced tinnitus. So maybe it will work for chronic noise-induced tinnitus as well; we don't know. Let us hope.

Most of us here have lost our lives because of this damn disease. We need HOPE at least for our mental health.

 

Obviously the drug sponsor wants this to work for noise-induced tinnitus. Apparently they claim it showed some efficacy in animal models.

We know from before that animal model success does often NOT translate to human success.

I'm not sure why I, @Nick47, or others should drop our rational thinking just because it might be distressing for those who want to swim in fantasy-like positivity? Aren't we all adults and can maintain our individual rationalism, pessimism or optimism without forcing it onto others?