PAMPLONA (EFE).— The Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN), in northern Spain, is the first Spanish hospital to operate on a 14-month-old girl to treat her severe-profound hearing loss caused by a genetic mutation.
This is the Chord Phase I/II clinical trial promoted by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, based on gene therapy and which, with a surgical injection into the inner ear, seeks to restore normal hearing.
According to information from the CUN, the gene involved is OTOF, which encodes a protein called otoferlin, which is essential for hearing function. In most cases, its mutations cause severe or profound hearing deficits.
The surgical procedure follows steps based on those used during the placement of a cochlear implant, although the results are not immediate.
The director of the Otorhinolaryngology Department at the Clinic, Manuel Manrique, warned that the recovery process “is gradual and until week 24, that is, almost six months after the intervention, consistent auditory responses are not obtained that allow us to ensure that the patient is able to hear a conversation.”
The first patient to undergo surgery in Spain is a 14-month-old girl who was born without her parents knowing that they were carriers of this genetic mutation.
Manrique recalled that this is a clinical trial, “so, in no case, should it be interpreted as a treatment of proven efficacy and safety in the marketing phase.”
Cochlear implant
The same sources explained that currently, people with hearing loss who carry this genetic mutation have only one therapeutic alternative to be able to hear: the placement of a cochlear implant. These are electronic devices that replace the external, middle and inner ear, collecting sounds and transforming them into electrical stimuli that are transmitted to the auditory nerve.
“With cochlear implants we have been able to offer patients a palliative procedure. However, with this new therapy we are talking about something radically different that opens the door to a possible curative procedure,” Manrique said.
The trial’s promoter stressed that “this treatment is indicated for those patients who suffer from hearing loss caused by the mutation of this gene, and not for any other reason. If its efficacy is proven, it will broaden the horizon to other possible cures for deafness due to genetic reasons with an impact on medical progress similar to that of the appearance of cochlear implants.”
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2024-08-29 07:13:06
