Gene therapy may restore hearing

by Sanjay Jha | August 28, 2008 at 12:20 am
470 views | 7 Recommendations | 2 comments

There is good news for deaf people in the world. Deafness is a serious problem which people develop over the period of time with increasing age, partly due to the loss of hair cells in the cochlea. Prolonged exposure to loud noise is another culprit, damaging the hair cells. Now a team of scientist  have discovered new genes which can restore hearing. Gene therapy uses a harmless virus to insert copies of the key gene into cells which then replicate.

 

Gene therapy has the potential to restore hearing in mice, offering hope for humans too, US scientists suggest.

An Oregon team discovered gene transfer produced functioning hair cells that are essential for the inner ear to interpret sounds, Nature reports.

In people with normal hearing, cochlear hair cells convert sound into electrical signals, which are ultimately transmitted to the brain.

Once the cells are lost or damaged, they cannot be replaced naturally.

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Uwe Paschen
Uwe Paschen
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:49 on August 28th, 2008

Sanjay Jha, I like this story. It's good stuff. Interesting, yet caution is to be advised.

Emilio Lizardo
Emilio Lizardo
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:32 on August 29th, 2008

Mouse With Human Ear

I think this is a great idea, as long as they can do better job on people than they did on this poor mouse ...

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Uwe Paschen
First Flagged at 1:49 AM, Aug 28, 2008 by Uwe Paschen

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