At an MIT center, researchers are working to regenerate the cells that are responsible for the proper functioning of the hearing system in the laboratory to allow those who have lost their hearing to be able to start hearing sounds again.
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Loss or loss of hearing, also called hearing loss, is not only a condition that can be disabling in the workplace, but it can also cause isolation and frustration in the person who suffers from it. This pathology occurs with age, but can also be sudden following exposure of the subject to too loud noisy sources.
There are currently hearing aids on the market to counteract the loss or reduction of the sense of hearing, but there is no treatment for this disorder which is caused by decrease in sensory receptors of hair cells. In fact, each individual is born with about 15.000 hair cells present in the cochlea of each ear which, if damaged, are no longer able to reproduce.
This prompted researchers at Frequency Therapeutics, a spinout biotech company at MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop a drug capable of regenerating hair cells in the laboratory to allow people with hearing loss to hear again. The work of the institution has been going on for years. In 2012, the research team had transformed progenitor cells into thousands of hair cells, starting to consider the fact that a permanent solution to hearing loss was no longer just an idea.
All tissues in the body contain progenitor cells, so we see a wide range of applications. We believe this is the future of regenerative medicine "
said researcher Chris Loose who is a founding member of Frequency Therapeutics.
Il treatment named FX-322, which is administered through the eardrum, is now in its second phase of study, having found gods significant improvements in hearing of 200 patients on which it was tested.
Some of these people couldn't hear for 30 years and for the first time they said they could walk into a busy restaurant and hear what their kids were saying. It is so significant to them. Obviously, more needs to be done, but the mere fact that you can help a small group of people is truly impressive "
said professor Robert Langer, another founder of the company, who with his colleagues hopes soon to market the drug they are experimenting with.
Frequency Therapeutics itself is simultaneously working on a drug against multiple sclerosis.
Fonte: Frequency Therapeutics
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