Scientists: hearing can be restored to people born deaf

0

Researchers from the University of Oregon discovered a new a key element for gene therapy that could restore hearing to people with congenital deafness.

The work centers around a large gene responsible for the inner ear protein, otoferlin. Mutations in otoferlin are associated with severe congenital hearing loss, a common type of deafness in which patients hear almost nothing.

In its normal form, the otoferlin gene is too large to create a molecular therapy based on it, so the knee team Johnson, an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Oregon, is looking at a truncated version of it.

Research by graduate student Aayushi Manchanda showed that the truncated version must include a part of the gene known as the transmembrane domain. In its absence, the maturation of sensory cells proceeds very slowly.