What’s Going On With Hair Cell Research and Hearing Loss?
As many of you may know, hearing loss due to life and aging is often due to the deterioration of the tiny hair cell structures deep within our inner ears. When people come in for a hearing evaluation, the question is often asked of us, “if we could regrow those hair cells that have deteriorated from aging or noise, could we hear better”? Our usual answer was always: “We can’t do that yet”! Well, here is some exciting and groundbreaking research that we at Audiology Innovations are following.
A private company known as Frequency Therapeutics is the first to show human research results of outer hair cell regrowth using medication known as FX-322.
- This treatment has been shown to be safe
- Word recognition shown to improve slightly in some test patients
- One dose worked better than multiple doses
- Ultra high frequencies improved first
Published in Otology and Neurotology (March 2021). Adults with acquired SNHL phase 1/2 study.
This is amazing research and a reason for our entire field to be excited. However, I caution readers to be aware of two very important points:
This research is in its infancy. After one study showed improved results in the test cases, the next one showed the same improvement in the placebo group. We are still looking at such small numbers of participants that we have to be cautious of the implications we can apply to each study’s results.
IF and WHEN (and I believe we will get there) hearing loss patients can eventually receive a medication to treat and regrow their hair cells, it will be CRITICALLY IMPORTANT that the receptor of sound information (ie. our auditory part of our brain) has been well cared for. This means that people who have taken care of their hearing loss vs. those who have not, will be better candidates for this treatment.
Remember that once our auditory system stops receiving auditory input, the cells in the auditory cortex atrophy permanently. If this is the case, it does NOT matter what input the hair cells send to the brain. The brain would not be able to receive the sound information and make any sense of it.
If you are already a hearing aid user, I applaud you and encourage you to wear your hearing devices consistently to keep your auditory system appropriately stimulated.
If you have been humming and hawing about taking action, now is the time.
So although this research is extremely exciting, it makes me have an even stronger evidence-based opinion of the critical importance of early treatment of hearing loss.