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Drugs that Cure Hearing Loss

Several efforts are underway to develop drugs that can prevent or treat various types of hearing loss. We've been following some of these efforts rather closely and will continue to bring you news of these efforts as it becomes available.

American BioHealth

Auris Medical

Sound Pharmaceuticals

Here are additional stories about drugs that may cure or prevent hearing loss:

March 2007 - Anti-epileptic drugs may help prevent and treat noise-induced hearing loss

March 2007 - Genetic hearing loss may be reversible without gene therapy

April 2007 - Antioxidants: An Antidote for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss?

June 2007 - Evidence lacking to guide treatment for sudden hearing loss

September 2007 - Quark Pharmaceuticals developing drug to prevent hearing loss

October 2007 - Premier Micronutrient Corporation (PMC) Releases Hearing Health Supplement to Address Multiple Conditions

Mar 2008 - Hearing Pill to Undergo More Clinical Trials

June 2008 - Chemical Combo May Prevent Hearing Loss

April 2009 - Advances in Otoprotective Drugs

July 2009 - Implanted Pump May Assist Hearing Loss Treatment

July 2009 - Drug Shrinks NF2 Tumors

September 2009 - Cancer Drug Shrinks Benign Tumors That Steal Hearing

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Quark Pharmaceuticals developing drug to prevent hearing loss

September 2007

Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel RNA interference-based therapeutics, announced today that it has expanded its relationship with the State University of New York at Buffalo, Center for Hearing & Deafness, which is the company's primary site for the pre-clinical studies of its product candidate, AHLi-11, for the treatment of acute hearing loss. Quark initiated its collaboration with the State University of New York in 2005. The current studies, led by Richard Salvi, PhD, focus on the in-depth analysis of the effect of AHLi-11 and other molecules in preventing chemotherapy-induced hearing loss. Based on these studies, Quark Pharmaceuticals expects to file an IND within 2007 for AHLi-11 for the prevention chemotherapy-induced hearing loss. AHLi-11 is a siRNA-based drug that temporarily inhibits the expression of human gene p53. Cochlear hair cell apoptosis (cell death), a key factor in several of the more common causes of acute hearing loss, is believed to be induced by molecular mechanisms most likely associated with p53-dependent stress response. Inhibition of p53, therefore, is suggested as a potential modality for the prevention of ototoxic hearing loss, a common side-effect of certain drugs including aminoglycoside antibiotics and cancer therapeutics such as cisplatin, as well as acoustic trauma.  Full Story

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Advances in Otoprotective Drugs

April 2009

In the last five to 10 years, there has been a steadily growing interest in developing drugs to prevent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). This drug development research is based on two fundamental discoveries related to cochlear pathology caused by noise exposure. The first is the realization that death of the cochlear sensory cells following a noise exposure is not random, but rather occurs in a predictable pattern of programmed cell death called apoptosis (Figure 1). In apoptotic cell death, the cell disassembles itself, the nucleus becomes smaller, and the cell membrane remains intact. The second finding is that exposure to noise triggers the death of sensory cells by producing a large, persistent increase in toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cochlea.   Full Story

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Drug Shrinks NF2 Tumors

July 2009

Treatment with the angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab (Avastin) reportedly improved hearing and alleviated other symptoms in patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). In a paper to appear in the July 23 New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that bevacizumab treatment successfully shrank characteristic tumors in a small group of NF2 patients, the first reported successful NF2 treatment not involving surgery or radiation.  Full Story

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Cancer Drug Shrinks Benign Tumors That Steal Hearing

September 2009

Last year, Edith Garrett could no longer hear her mother's voice or the sound of a dog barking. She was 22.  Four years earlier, Garrett learned she had neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), a condition characterized by tumors in the nervous system. The benign tumors, acoustic neuromas, damaged the eighth cranial nerve in one ear. The result: increasing hearing loss with no prospect of a cure. Having already lost 92 percent of her hearing, the college student from Atlanta signed on for an experimental treatment -- a drug therapy federally approved to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. The treatment involved infusions of bevacizumab, a drug marketed as Avastin that is sometimes used to treat advanced cancers. Dr. Scott Plotkin, a neuro-oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the trial, was looking for a medical option for his NF2 patients with acoustic neuromas. Not only do the tumors threaten hearing loss, but so can the current therapies, surgery and localized radiation.   Full Story