Researchers at the University of New South Wales were able to improve guinea pigs' hearing by transferring gene therapy into their cochlear implants, causing the regrowth of the animals' damaged auditory nerves.
The study was reported on Wednesday, and the technology is not yet ready to be used for human testing, according to The Huffington Post. However, the success continues research aimed at using cochlear implants to help users experience more normal sounds.
The cochlea is part of the inner ear, where microscopic hair cells look for vibrations and turn them into electrical impulses that are recognized by the brain as sound. The loss of hair cells, whether from aging, exposure to loud noises or other reasons, usually leads to hearing loss. Cochlear implants act as substitutes for missing hair cells, sending electrical impulses to activate auditory nerves in the brain and partially restore hearing.
The team of Australian researchers, led by Ph.D. student Jeremy Pinyon, updated a cochlear implant so it could administer close-field electroporation (CFE) gene therapy, CNET reported. The process involves sending electric pulses to a cell membrane, which improves its quality while letting new gene constructs be delivered to the membrane, stimulating growth.
The research was published on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The team concluded that while the animals still needed the implant to locate sound, those that received the gene therapy experienced improved hearing by two times, The Huffington Post reported.
Stefan Heller, otolaryngology professor at Stanford University who was not involved in the research, said it has not been determined how long the improvement would last.
The researchers believe the technology can be used for other types of implant therapy, such as brain stimulation that treats Parkinson's disease, CNET reported.
"Our work has implications far beyond hearing disorders," said Matthias Klugmann, associate professor and co-author of the study from the UNSW Translational Neuroscience Facility research team. "Gene therapy has been suggested as a treatment concept, even for devastating neurological conditions - and our technology provides a novel platform for safe and efficient gene transfer into tissues as delicate as the brain."
