It is a discovery that gives rise to hope. An advance that might upset the daily lives of many patients with deafness. Biotech company Frequency Therapeutics is looking to reverse hearing loss. For this, it does not want to develop hearing aids of a new kind or implants but a regenerative therapy (source 1). A team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in conjunction with the startup Frequency Therapeutics, worked to develop a new treatment.
And for that, she has a solution. It uses small molecules to program progenitor cells, relatives of inner ear stem cells. Goal ? Create the tiny hair cells that allow hearing. As the company behind this drug reminds us, hair cells die when exposed to loud noises or drugs (such as certain chemotherapy drugs and antibiotics).
An injection in the ear
How it works ? Unlike other treatments, the drug candidate was developed to be injected directly into the ear to regenerate these cells within the cochlea. “In clinical trials, the company has already improved people’s hearing, measured by speech perception tests, i.e. the ability to understand speech and recognize words,” reports the manufacturer’s statement. Before…
