Taking daily supplements may help reduce hearing loss in a common form of childhood deafness, according to a new study.
New research reveals that a diet enhanced with various vitamins and minerals significantly stalled progression of hereditary deafness in mice engineered with a connexin 26 gene deletion.
"Dietary supplements consisting of beta-carotene (precursor to vitamin A), vitamins C and E and the mineral magnesium (ACEMg) can be beneficial for reducing hearing loss due to aminoglycosides and overstimulation. This regimen also slowed progression of deafness for a boy with GJB2 (CONNEXIN 26) mutations," researchers wrote in the study.
Researchers said the latest findings are important because mutations in the connexin 26 gene are a leading cause of hereditary childhood deafness. Interestingly, the same vitamin regimen had the opposite effect on mice modeled after a rarer typer of hearing loss called autosomal dominant auditory neuropathy.
"Our findings suggest that a particular high dose of mineral and vitamin supplements may be beneficial to one genetic mutation," senior author Yehoash Raphael, a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School, said in a university release. "However, the negative outcome in the AUNA1 mouse model suggests that different mutations may respond to the special diet in different ways."
While the enhanced diet helped the connexin 26 mouse model by slowing hearing loss and improving hearing thresholds, it accelerated deafness in mice modeled with the AUNA1 gene mutation.
"Many babies born with a genetic mutation that causes deafness pass their newborn screening test but then lose their hearing later in life," said study author Glenn Green, an associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "These patterns suggest that for some children, there may be an opportunity to potentially save cells present at birth. For these childhood cases it's crucial that we identify therapies that prevent progression and reverse loss of hearing."
"These findings are encouraging for those of us who treat children with progressive connexin 26 hearing loss, and possibly for other mutations not yet tested," added Green. "Further studies are needed to confirm these findings in children and to explore whether oral administration of antioxidants could someday be considered as an effective treatment."
The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.
