New Telegraph

Hope rises as scientists develop new deafness therapy

Researchers from the Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel have found an innovative treatment for deafness based on the delivery of genetic material into the cells of the inner ear. According to the results of their paper published in ‘EMBO Molecular Medicine,’ the genetic material ‘replaces’ the genetic defect and enables the cells to continue functioning normally. The scientists were able to prevent the gradual deterioration of hearing in mice that had a genetic mutation for deafness.

They maintained that this novel therapy could lead to a breakthrough in treating children born with various mutations that eventually cause deafness. The study was led by Professor Karen Avraham of the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, reported the ‘Medical Xpress’. According to the WHO, there are about half a billion people with hearing loss around the world today, and this figure is expected to double in the coming decades. While two-thirds of these people live in developing countries half of deafness and hearing impairment is avoidable. One in every 200 children is born with a hearing impairment, and one in every 1,000 is born deaf. In about half of these cases, deafness is caused by a genetic mutation.

There are currently about 100 different genes associated with hereditary deafness. A gene mutation is a permanent alteration in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene, such that the sequence differs from what is found in most people.

Mutations range in size; they can affect anywhere from a single DNA building block (base pair) to a large segment of a chromosome that includes multiple genes. Professor Avraham said “In this study we focused on genetic deafness caused by a mutation in the gene SYNE4—a rare deafness discovered by our lab several years ago in two Israeli families, and since then identified in Turkey and the United Kingdom (UK) as well.

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