Finding new gene therapy can help treat hearing loss

Adding a new medical benefit from gene therapy is gaining the attention of the scientific community.

A new study from a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins University shows that they have identified, found a new gene therapy that can restore the state of immediate hearing loss in the animal body.

According to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is estimated that about one-third of people in the United States aged 65 to 74 years of age suffer from hearing loss, another part over 75 years of age and men. gender is more disease than women.

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According to a survey from the US National Center for Health and Nutrition, more than 35% of people in the United States aged 40 and older have a degree of disorder of hearing balance.

Recently, researchers from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine and the Department of Hearing and Visually Impaired (NIDCD) have collaborated to find and use gene therapy to restore hearing balance on muscles. Genetically engineered mice were suffering from Usher Syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes partial or total hearing loss.

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The team treated gene therapy in the ears of these mice to re-establish a healthy gene into the defective genes caused by Usher Syndrome. The results showed that the hearing condition of mice was gradually balanced and recovered quickly.

Dr. Wade Chien, neuroscience researcher and associate professor of the research group, Johns Hopkins said: " In-ear gene therapy has great potential as a new way to help patients recover from the condition. hearing loss '.

However, the team thinks that this is just a preliminary study on mice and hopes it will quickly be studied and tested in humans.

This research has just been published in the Journal of Molecular Therapy.