Gene therapy to restore hearing sounds closer to reality after success in deaf-born mice
Using gene therapy, a team of researchers for the first time successfully restored normal hearing to mice born deaf due to a missing protein, according to a study published today in the journal Neuron. This finding could be music to the ears of people whose congenital hearing loss is caused by genetic mutations that may prevent tiny inner ear hairs from interacting with neurotransmitters that are necessary for hearing. In the current experiment, mice recovered full hearing for an average of seven weeks, with two of 19 mice maintaining it for as long as one and a half years. “I was completely shocked,” says lead author Lawrence Lustig, director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at the University of California, San Francisco. “The hearing looked almost completely normal and you couldn’t tell these were rescued mice.” … Read more