Around 466 million people worldwide, including 34 million children, suffer from deafness or hearing loss. In France, according to Inserm, this problem concerns 6% of young people aged 15 to 24 and more than 65% of people over 65. However, there are potential treatments for some cases of deafness, as revealed by researchers at Harvard Medical School in the United States. In an article published on April 17 in the journal PNAS, they announced that they had successfully restored hearing in mice.
Scientists accomplished this by "reprogramming" the hair cells in the inner ear. Hair cells, which have cilia, are found in the cochlea, an organ behind the eardrum, and are essential for hearing. However, once these cells die due to aging, disease or exposure to loud sounds, mammals are no longer able to regenerate them naturally.
These researchers succeeded in manipulating the cells to regrow the eyelashes and make them functional again. To do this, they used a genetic technique called siRNA, which allows a genetic message to be sent to cells to remove certain parts of their messenger RNA and thus reprogram them more effectively. In other words, this technique gives hair cells the ability to regenerate.
Although these results are promising in mice, many challenges remain before this treatment can be applied to humans. In particular, it would be more difficult to target the right cells for reprogramming in humans. It will therefore take several more years before a treatment can be developed. Currently, other methods, such as placing a hearing implant in the cochlea, can reduce hearing loss, but they require surgery.
 Frank Verain
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11/05/2023 | 
