Tinnitus Research at University of Laval - Quebec

[James White]

Hey folks,

Just stumbled on that article in the french Quebec website QuebecMatin, that i googletranslated :

"Un espoir pour ceux qui souffrent d'acouphènes"

Approximately 800,000 Quebecers who suffer from tinnitus can be hopeful that one day their hearing status improves. Research at Laval University have yielded encouraging results.

People who have tinnitus always hear a ringing in the ear. It affects their lives everyday.

For the professor of the Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Matthieu Guitton, tinnitus is a major public health problem. "They will receive 10% of the adult population and this percentage is expected to increase because of the behavior of young people who listen to music very loud," he said.

For now, there is no medicine against this health disorder, but anything is possible.

Dr. Guitton conducted tests by injecting a molecule in rats. Recently, a laboratory in the United States was conducting the first clinical trials in humans with the disease recently. However, the injection of a drug has reduced or, in some cases, completely eliminate all recent tinnitus in humans and rats.

The drug could be available within five years in the best case, if a pharmaceutical company is interested.

The laboratory of Professor Guitton also works for the realization of a prosthesis for the long term tinnitus. A Quebec Foundation has also just see the day to fund research.

I never heard anything about that University, so I contacted Dr Guitton and asked him if his compound was AM101, he answered that he couldn't tell me anything about his research today.

Have you heard about them ?

 

[erik]

Wow I am surprised by his answer, ask him tomorrow again then . Must not be 101 because I am sure he could have mentioned that.

 

[Erlend]

"... if a pharmaceutical company is interested."

That one I think is pretty safe lol.

Imagine the money a company selling a tinnitus-mute-drug that costs 100$ a month would make..

 

[Dani]

I was listening to Dr Guitton video, as my mother language is French i understood all what is said. the interview was taken on 9th October 2013. The medicament he discovered is new (not AM101)

Conducted tests from an injected rats molecule. Recently, a laboratory in the United States was conducting the first clinical trials in humans with the disease recently.

The good new he said that trial on human get good results all 100 % of the cases and all tinnitus kinds, at least there is an improvement.
The drug will be on our hand in 5 years he said

Here is the video link:

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/...s-recherche-medicament-universite-laval.shtml

 

[yonkapin]

Whaaaaat? That is pretty cool if it's legit!

 

[nills]

Is this even with chronic tinnitus or is there a specific time-frame for it to work ?

All this news gives so much hope

DR. MATTHIEU GUITTON
Faculty of Pharmacy, Laval University
$20,000

Analysis of long-term involvement of synaptic plasticity in tinnitus
Tinnitus is a perceived noise in the ears such as ringing, buzzing, or clicking. This perception of noise may be caused by irritation or damage to the auditory nerve. Transient exposure to noise may irritate the auditory nerve causing reversible tinnitus. Prolonged exposure over time may cause intermittent or permanent tinnitus. Because noise pollution is a serious environmental problem, it is estimated that close to 1% of the North-American population suffers from tinnitus. Although tinnitus affects adversely the quality of life of individuals afflicted with this problem, there are at present no effective remedies for this condition. Dr. Guitton proposes to study the neural pathways that are triggered by damage to the auditory nerve to evoke tinnitus in a rat model. By identifying the neurotransmitters and receptors that propagate signals in these pathways, it is anticipated that pharmacological agents can be designed to selectively block these pathways and offer relief to individuals suffering from tinnitus.

http://www.utoronto.ca/bantresf/Grantees/Guitton.html

 

[jes]

Wow hey nills I think I know you from the good old dayes have you been to Copenhagen.
If that is real we can just relax sit Down and wait five years.

 

[Erlend]

Sweet. Maybe this is it!

 

[seal]

imagine being able to experience silence again.... seems like a dream to me crossed fingers over here!

 

[Hopeful]

If this guy has promising results I am very excited. Reading the top result on Google (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297194/) has convinced me that he is not just hocus-pocus. He seems to consider the big picture in that article.

I would just very much like to know if his testing is on chronic tinnitus. Does that interview say anything about that?

'Récemment, un laboratoire aux États-Unis effectuait les premiers essais cliniques sur des sujets humains présentant la pathologie depuis peu' means resent onset, right?

 

[cmurem]

If this guy has promising results I am very excited. Reading the top result on Google (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297194/) has convinced me that he is not just hocus-pocus. He seems to consider the big picture in that article.

I would just very much like to know if his testing is on chronic tinnitus. Does that interview say anything about that?

'Récemment, un laboratoire aux États-Unis effectuait les premiers essais cliniques sur des sujets humains présentant la pathologie depuis peu' means resent onset, right?

It is not specified if it works for all tinnitus cases however chronic tinnitus is independently mentioned as "The laboratory of Professor Guitton also works for the realization of a prosthesis for the long term tinnitus." I think it is probably for acute cases.

 

[seal]

It is not specified if it works for all tinnitus cases however chronic tinnitus is independently mentioned as "The laboratory of Professor Guitton also works for the realization of a prosthesis for the long term tinnitus." I think it is probably for acute cases.

Could also mean, that it isn't enough to inject the medication only once, so that chronic T patients would need a prothesis that continuously releases medication into the ear or something.

 

[Erlend]

Could also mean, that it isn't enough to inject the medication only once, so that chronic T patients would need a prothesis that continuously releases medication into the ear or something.

Well in that case you're gonna have to cut wholes in your ear drums many times which will ruin them I think

 

[seal]

Well in that case you're gonna have to cut wholes in your ear drums many times which will ruin them I think

basically that is what they do with tympanostomy tubes, isn't it? I didn't know that that would ruin your ear drums... ok so maybe my idea of what could have been meant by prothesis was wrong after all.

 

[Erlend]

You're right. I remember that now. Sorry. Every 6 months or something.

 

[erik]

Could also mean, that it isn't enough to inject the medication only once, so that chronic T patients would need a prothesis that continuously releases medication into the ear or something.

It seems a implanted device would be the case....

The invention relates to methods for the prevention and/or treatment of tinnitus induced by cochlear excitotoxicity. In these methods, a pharmaceutical composition comprising an NMDA receptor antagonist is administered to an individual in need of such treatment by appropriate devices and/or formulations for local administration to the inner ear. The tinnitus to be prevented and/or treated may be provoked by acoustic trauma, presbycusis, ischemia, anoxia, sudden deafness, or other cochlear excitotoxic-inducing occurrence.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8268866.html

 

[Erlend]

It seems a implanted device would be the case....

The invention relates to methods for the prevention and/or treatment of tinnitus induced by cochlear excitotoxicity. In these methods, a pharmaceutical composition comprising an NMDA receptor antagonist is administered to an individual in need of such treatment by appropriate devices and/or formulations for local administration to the inner ear. The tinnitus to be prevented and/or treated may be provoked by acoustic trauma, presbycusis, ischemia, anoxia, sudden deafness, or other cochlear excitotoxic-inducing occurrence.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8268866.html

But is it really relevant to any of us? Or only people who have had it for 3 months and less?
(I guess it's relevant just for our curiosity, but I mean relevant as in able to help us)

 

[erik]

I think it is relevant for all of us. Seems like Guitton is also working on solutions for long term tinnitus sufferers

"The laboratory of Professor Guitton also works for the realization of a prosthesis for the long term tinnitus."

 

[jes]

Thanks erik when suffers lose hope you grip them and give them a new.

 

[Erlend]

A prosthesis? A thing in our ears? Or is this a word that can mean several things?

 

[Gael11]

@James if you want to know more about this you must watch that report : "Les accouphènes", Découverte - Radio Canada, February 28th 2010 (in french). I live in Quebec and I have been following Guitton's work since 2011. I always thought he was working on AM 101 or something very similar! www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/decouverte/2009-2010/Reportage.asp?idDoc=104908

 

[Gael11]

I forgot to mention, when I first got tinnitus in 2011 I wrote to Mathieu Guitton and he has been very nice. He told me he had been working on a molecule that can treat recent-onset tinnitus but that we would have to wait a few years (clinical trials, etc.) before it could reach the market. He told me at the time that his team was also doing research on a way to stop chronic tinnitus. He added, "Il y a de l'espoir", "There is hope"!

 

[Erlend]

If you have chronic tinnitus, and "fix" the ear... Surely there must be a way to sort of "trick" the brain to forget the sound?

Listen to white noise for A YEAR and it must be gone? What?

 

[erik]

I don't know about a trick but there are some people with T that can already do that. My father has had loud T for over 30 years and he says he can't hear it anymore unless he specifically listens for it. Wish I could do that, but I am not there yet.

 

[Viktor Salvatore]

God bless this French Messiah of our hope and thanks to each of you for bringing this encouraging news to us. God, please rain down on us with your goodness and cure us as you once did the Leopards.

 

[nills]

If you have chronic tinnitus, and "fix" the ear... Surely there must be a way to sort of "trick" the brain to forget the sound?

Listen to white noise for A YEAR and it must be gone? What?

It`s called brain placticity ...the brain adapts to every new modality that asks it`s attention.

 

[James White]

@James if you want to know more about this you must watch that report : "Les accouphènes", Découverte - Radio Canada, February 28th 2010 (in french). I live in Quebec and I have been following Guitton's work since 2011. I always thought he was working on AM 101 or something very similar! www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/decouverte/2009-2010/Reportage.asp?idDoc=104908

Thanks for the link, they are talking about both his molecule and AM101 in that documentary. It was interesting to see people live with tinnitus but didn't focus enough on research, still too early to develop i guess.

 

[Erlend]

It`s called brain placticity ...the brain adapts to every new modality that asks it`s attention.

Exactly! The brain is plastic, it adapts and changes. That is why I think that if you fix what's wrong in the inner ear, fixing your brain should be very possible.

At least that's what I hope...

 

[erik]

It would be nice if we could convince Guitton (or other respected researchers) to create a thread about his research and give us direct his views on tinnitus and his research findings first hand, instead of us having to post articles and quotes all the time. Kinda of like an real expert corner.

 

[Erlend]

Have him do an AMA like they do on reddit. He says I Am This Dude

and then we ask him quesions and he answers. Would be great