Researchers have moved closer to curing deafness after discovering a “master gene” that causes lost cells to regrow.
This discovery gives hope to millions of deaf or hard of hearing people.
Aging, damage to sounds, and certain medications can destroy irreplaceable cells that help the brain process sounds.
But now scientists in the United States say they can regenerate cells known as inner and outer hair cells in a lab.
“We’ve overcome a major hurdle,” said Professor Jaime Garcia-Anoveros, a neurologist at Northwestern University in Chicago and lead author of the study.
The discovery could open the door to gene therapies that can reprogram cells to regenerate hair lost in people’s ears.
Scientists have discovered the specific gene that determines whether an ear hair cell will grow into an inner hair or an outer hair. Because our sense of hearing relies on a careful balance between the two, the inability to artificially augment one or the other was a major hurdle in developing potential treatments for deafness (archive image)
Our sense of hearing is determined by two types of fine hairs in the ear: outer and inner hair cells.
The outer hair cells amplify the sound for the inner hair cells, which then send vibrations as signals to the brain, which turns the message into sound.
The most common cause of deafness and hearing loss is the death of hair cells in the outer ear, which occurs naturally with age.
But it can also be due to excessive noise or certain medications and treatments such as antibiotics or chemotherapy.
Hearing loss is a major problem, with around one in six people in the UK experiencing some form of partial or complete deafness.
Scientists can already produce an artificial hair cell, but it will not differentiate into an inner or outer cell produced in the cochlea.
Tests in mice showed that expression of a gene called TBX2 directs a hair cell to produce an internal hair cell.
Conversely, when TBX2 was blocked, the cell became the outermost cell.
Professor Garcia-Anoveros said that while the research is still in its early experimental stages, the discovery could one day help people grow ear hair cells and restore hearing, as well as learn more about the causes of deafness.
“We can now understand how to specifically create inner or outer hair cells and determine why the latter are more prone to death and cause deafness,” he said.
The production of these cells would require a “genetic cocktail,” he said.
Professor Garcia-Anoveros said the interaction of hair cells in the outer and inner ear to capture sound is like a ballet.
“Like ballet. The outer crouches, jumps, and lifts the inner one into the ear.’
“The ear is a beautiful organ. There is no other organ in a mammal in which cells are arranged so precisely. Otherwise, there will be no listening.’
The results were published in the journal Natura †.
Source: Daily Mail
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