Regeneration of hearing ‘fiber cells’ paves the way to cure deafness

Boston: We know that the main cause of untreatable deafness is the loss of the fiber cells (hair cells) inside the ear that sense sound vibrations. Now, with the combination of different drugs, considerable success has been achieved in their regeneration.

Whether it is a human or a mammalian ear, the hair cells inside it act as sensitive sensors and once destroyed do not regenerate. Now, however, Professor Zeng Y. Chen of Mass Brigham General Hospital in Massachusetts and his colleagues have developed a combination of different molecules to not only regrow damaged hair cells in the ear of mice, but also the genetic pathway of this process. Way) has also been reprogrammed.

The details have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and it is hoped that gene therapy may one day restore hearing, which has long been a challenge to medical science. Millions of people around the world, including Pakistan, are hearing impaired under this condition, for whom this treatment is a ray of hope.

The experts also studied zebrafish and chickens and looked at the cell division by which new hearing cells are formed. They noted the release of signals and its pathways at the molecular level. Then in 2019, when mice were worked on, it was found that hearing cells started forming in their ears due to genetic modification.

According to the experts, several molecules have also been used to activate ATOH1, and they have been mixed with a harmless adenovirus to create hearing cells. But still its benefits to humans are far away.