Hearing loss is a widespread problem affecting many people around the world. Globally, about 20% of the population (1.5 billion) is affected by it.
While there are different types of hearing aids, they are unable to completely restore a patient's natural hearing mechanism.
Now, a new study led by the University of Rochester Medical Center offers interesting insights into how the problem can be solved. And it confirms: reversing hearing loss in mammals is possible.
To resent us
In reptiles, fish and birds, hair cells can regenerate: not so for humans. We have 16.000 hair cells in each ear. Over time these cells are damaged by infections, loud noises and aging, leading to a decrease in hearing.
The research team discovered that, through the activation of a protein called SPP1, the hair cells of the cochlea can be regenerated, those found in the ear region and which allow you to hear and understand the different surrounding sounds. In other words: the hub of hearing.
In a previous study (in 2018) researchers had already shown how the activation of a gene called ERBB2 led to the growth of new hair cells. However, the underlying mechanism was not yet known.
The novelty discovered by the team of Patricia White, lead author of the study, is that the ERBB2 gene actually causes hair cells to behave like stem cells, thereby producing the SPP1 protein. And the circle closes.
Hearing possible
The results of this study (published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, I link it here) represent a major breakthrough in the understanding of hair cell regeneration.
They pair with the other excellent study, of 2021, which revealed the role of a molecule, H3K4me1 in hair cell regeneration in mice.
A discovery that in the future could be of enormous help to all people who suffer from permanent hearing loss and who can't see, on the contrary: they can't wait to find a cure.
