When hearing aids benefit deaf/hh children

While growing up at around age 6 or 7 years old I received my second hearing aid after having worn out my first one that I had since age 2 1/2 years old. It wasn’t the behind the ear hearing aid but a body aid. I’ve gotten a lot of good mileage out of my old hearing aids. Obviously so because without that hearing aid of mine I wouldn’t be here where I am today. Successful and thankful with what residual hearing I had left though not perfect. It has helped me with my ongoing ragtime piano playing ever since I was seven years old. I am proud of all of my past hearing aids I've worn because each one of them I have used it with great benefit. I even remembered how I enjoyed using my hearing aid when I was little because it gave me access to the world of sound, music and voice around me. It took awhile to realize that hearing is a precious thing and a gift even if I couldn't hear perfectly. It was perfect enough for me with the help from the hearing aid technology. I even have a drawing I did when I was around 5 or 6 years old showing me as a happy kid wearing the body hearing aid. There was a time or two when I didn't like wearing my hearing aid but that phase quickly passed once I realized how important my hearing aids were to me.

Below is a picture of my old body hearing aid inside a protective case . It’s a Zenith. Along with a Battery Membership card, and a special yellow button that has as special message.

It’s so well preserved though I am sure my old hearing aid can work if I put in the right kind of battery.

Pretty fascinating on how hearing aids (even cochlear implants) have helped so many people with hearing loss. Isn’t technology great? And perhaps someday hearing aids will become obsolete with the help of biotechnology that have the ability to restore sensorineural hearing loss. It's not a matter of if but when. That day is coming whether in my lifetime or not.

Deafened mice hear again

A drug that can regenerate damaged ear hair cells in mice.

Now, Edge and his colleagues have tested several gamma-secretase inhibitors to find the one with the strongest regenerative effect on inner ear stem cells. They then tested that drug on adult mice that had been deafened after 2 hours in an extremely loud sound chamber. The drug prompted supporting cells in the inner ear to become hair cells, and the treated mice regained some hearing, the group reports online today in Neuron. 

The gamma-secretase inhibitors were originally developed as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease, but clinical trials showed little effect on symptoms of dementia and serious side effects in the gut and the immune system. Giving the mice one of the drugs orally triggered similar side effects, the team reports, so they tried applying the compound directly to the membrane between the middle ear and the inner ear. That required minor surgery in the mice, but could be achieved with an injection in humans—a technique already in common use, Edge says. The direct application produced as much hair cell growth as the oral treatment, without significant side effects, the team reports. The drug isn't ready for clinical trials, Edge says, but "it's a foot in the door."

"This is a major step forward," says Yehoash Raphael, an auditory neuroscientist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who led the gene therapy study in guinea pigs. Although the treatment didn't restore full hearing, the improvement is significant, he says.

This is indeed a major step forward in regenerative medicine for the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss. It'd be a matter of time until clinical trials begin.

Dream Team of Scientists Collaborate on Cure for Hearing Loss in Ten Years

Looks like a goal is set by a dream team of stem cell scientists and researchers for hearing loss that sensorineural (nerve deafness) hearing loss would be cured through biological means in ten years from now.

The Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) is a Consortium made up of some of the most talented, creative, inspired researchers in the area of cell regeneration in the ear, both mid-level and senior-level investigators whose work has already contributed significantly to the field. The Consortium is an alliance of scientists working collaboratively and interactively with the goal of developing a biologic cure for severe sensorineural hearing loss in the next decade. At the Summit, experts discussed an area of particular promise: hair cell regeneration in humans.


"Hearing Health Foundation understands that it is important to invest in researchers who are working in hair cell regeneration as this will be an important component in the next wave of hearing treatments," said Andrea Boidman, Executive Director of Hearing Health Foundation. "Hearing research needs to be a national priority, and people need to know that there are treatments on the horizon that could really impact their lives."

In fact, a summit was held in New York city today.

Hearing Restoration Initiative 2011 Summit
The Promise of Cell Regeneration
On Monday, October 3, 2011, DRF will host a Summit on Hearing Restoration at the New York Academy of Medicine, at 103rd Street and 5th Avenue in New York City. As a part of DRF's Hearing Restoration Initiative, this landmark summit brings together the leaders in the field of cell regeneration research in the ear to discuss what it is, where it is going and how one day soon a therapy for cell regeneration in the ear will be a reality.


Doors open at 12pm.
Exhibit Hall hours 12pm to 6pm


Exhibitors include:
- AARP - Caption Call - Caption First


This event is open to the public. Online registration has closed, but you will be able to register on-site.


ASL and CART services will be provided.
For more information, please contact Melody Seiling at mseiling@drf.org.

That's pretty ambitious to say that a biological cure using stem cells for sensorineural hearing loss would happen in ten years time. Certainly would be loads better than an Esteem implantable hearing aid.

Cure for nerve deafness gets even closer

One step closer on the goal to help restore hearing loss.

A cure for deafness could be on the horizon after scientists created specialised ear cells in the lab.

Grown in their thousands, the delicate hairs could one day be transplanted into the inner ear, restoring hearing to millions.

The breakthrough comes after ten years of painstaking research.

It may also allow some balance disorders to be eased and aid the search for drugs to prevent people from becoming hard of hearing.

Age-related hearing loss affects half of Britons aged 60 and over and there is currently no way of holding it at bay.

Hearing aids amplify sounds but nothing can give sufferers back the hearing they once had.

In the latest research at Stanford University, California, scientists perfected turning stem cells - blank cells which can turn into other cell types - into the delicate hairs found in the inner ear. ones.

The linch-pin of hearing and balance, thousands of these hairs help convert sound vibrations into nerve impulses which are decoded by the brain.

Ageing, noise and general wear and tear make them wither away and, until now, there was no way of replacing them.

The hairs made in the lab from mice looked and acted like the real thing, the journal Cell reports.

Researcher Stefan Heller said: 'We knew it was really working when we saw them in the electron microscope.

'They looked more or less like they were taken out of the ear.'

If the same technique can be applied to human cells, within ten years it may be possible to transplant-the delicate hairs to restore hearing.

Using slivers of the patient's skin as a source of the stem cells means that any hairs generated would be a perfect match for their body.

It also raises the tantalising possibility of creating drugs to coax the ear into growing more hair cells of its own accord.

We may be only 10 years away on witnessing the impossible.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1278160/Deafness-cure-breakthrough-scientists-create-tiny-ear-hairs-stem-cells.html#ixzz1MIzLjDfu

Could your own stem cells in your hair follicles help you hear someday?

From the October 2009 22ND IGB MEETING STEM CELLS: FROM MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY TO THERAPEUTIC APPLICATIONS:

Adult stem cells in your hair follicles seen as a potential source that could differentiate into auditory neurons.

Stem cells from the hair follicle differentiate into auditory neurons. Margriet A. HUISMAN, Ragad El Seady, Johan H.M. Frijns

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands To patients suffering from profound sensorineural hearing loss, cochlear implantation(CI) is currently the standard approach. Most implant recipients experience benefits, however, understanding speech in noisy circumstances and music perception remains challenging. It is suggested that stem cell-based therapy, by increasing the number of auditory neurons (ANs), will improve the performance of a CI1.

Stem cells, derived from the bulge of hair follicles from adult mammalian dermis (epidermal neural crest stem cells, EPI-NCSC), are potential candidates for AN regeneration: they have a similar origin as inner ear cells, their functionality has been proven and autologous transplantation is possible, avoiding graft versus host disease2,3. The aim of this research is to investigate whether EPI-NCSC have the capacity to differentiate into neurons with features of auditory neurons, such as bipolar morphology, presence of TrkB/C and GluR2/3 and sodium voltage channel 1.6 (NaV1.6)4. EPI-NCSCs from whiskers of mice were expanded and differentiated on a collagen I matrix. Subsequent t o proliferation, quantitative immunohistochemistry was performed to demonstrate the presence of neural stem cells (nestin). In addition, expressions of TUJ1, TrkB and -C, GluR2/3 and NaV1.6 were determined.

After the proliferative phase, the majority of the cells (90%) were positive for nestin. The average yield per follicle was 2x105, while for inner ear transplantation purposes 2-5x105 cells are required. 70%±8% of the differentiated cells was positive for the neural marker TUJ1. Moreover, 60%±2% of the neurons showed a bipolar morphology and the majority was positive for GluR2/3 and NaV1.6 and showed co-expression of TrkB and –C. EPI-NCSC-derived neural stem cells can easily be obtained in quantities sufficient for inner ear transplantation purposes. These stem cells have the capacity to differentiate into neurons with hallmarks of functional AN, which makes them promising candidates for a stem cell-based therapy of the auditory nerve.

Who knew? Adult stem cells from your own hair follicles have the potential and capacity to help restore your hearing loss. Problem is, bald guys are out of luck.

Blinded by my own hearing

Not me but I was pleased to hear David Granovsky's comment in his blog "The Stem Cell Blog" when he covered the Chloe Sohl's story on her miraculous recovery from her hearing loss using her own adult stem cells. David went onto say that basically he forgot about people with hearing loss may unable to hear or understand fully what the original YouTube version of Chloe's story. And that he was "blinded" by his own hearing for not thinking about a captioned version of Chloe's video story.


Related Kokonut Pundit blogs on adult stem cells and hearing loss.

Cure for Hearing Loss One Step Closer....

Scientists were able to narrow down a key gene called Atoh1 (also known as Math1 - ) which cause cells to develop into hair cells but that these cells function like normal hair cells. So far, hearing loss may be repaired by cell transplantation using human umbilical cord Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSC) since they show that a small number migrated to the damaged area inside the cochlea and repaired sensory hair cells and neurons.

Researchers used sensitive tracing methods to determine if the transplanted cells were capable of migrating to the cochlea and evaluated whether the cells could contribute to regenerating neurons and sensory tissue in the cochlea.

"Our findings show dramatic repair of damage with surprisingly few human-derived cells having migrated to the cochlea," said Roberto P. Revoltella, MD, PhD, lead author of the study. "A fraction of circulating HSC fused with resident cells, generating hybrids, yet the administration of HSC appeared to be correlated with tissue regeneration and repair as the cochlea in non-transplanted mice remained seriously damaged."

Results also showed that cochlear regeneration was less in the transplanted group deafened by noise rather than chemicals, implying that damage was more severe when induced by noise. Regenerative effects were greater in mice injected with a higher number of HSC. They also found that regeneration of cochlear tissues improved as time passed.

According to Revoltella, their results suggest the possibility of an "emerging strategy for inner ear rehabilitation….providing conditions for the resumption of deafened cochlea."

This can only mean one thing and that this particular study will surely speed up the date to the day when hearing loss in humans can ultimately be cured by those with sensorineural hearing loss (i.e. nerve deafness). For the 30 million people in the United States with hearing loss, this is great news. Except, perhaps, not for some of the 900,000 cultural deaf people who sees this news as a "threat" to their cultural ideals.

Deafness Cure One Step Closer.....

And, no, this isn't a fake news but a real one where scientists have gotten one step closer, very close I might add, to help solve an age old problem on how to restore hearing loss in deaf and hard of hearing people.

Deaf people could one day have their hearing restored through a ground-breaking gene therapy technique, scientists reported yesterday.

They showed that they can trigger the growth of new hair cells in the inner ear that are crucial to hearing as they pick up sound vibrations.

In tests on mice they showed that stimulating these usually irreplaceable cells to grow resulted in new cells that helped detect noise.

Researchers believe the approach could eventually be used to improve or restore hearing to the 9 million people in Britain classified as deaf or hard of hearing.

Dr. Mark Downs, of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said: "This is an exciting development which completes another important piece of the jigsaw in understanding how we might use gene therapy to eventually restore hearing loss.

"It is no longer a pipedream to talk about cell and drug-based solutions. There is a long way to go, but the journey towards new treatments is certainly under way."

Read more here. And even more details here.

Once scientists began to unravel certain key but crucial elements on how to unlock the mysteries of deafness by restoring hearing will only mean that the dominos will fall faster as more scientists join in on the search to finally help restore hearing loss. This news discovery today will only mean that research will step up even more quicker and the time til the first deaf person to have his/her hearing restored will be even more closer and not some distant pipe dream.

Amazing science!

And here's to for the restoration of hearing loss!

News! First Deaf Baby Naturally Cured of Hearing Loss

Breaking – First Deaf Baby Cured of Hearing Loss with Stem Cell Therapy

Jonathan Wiley, of England, at age 10 months became the first deaf baby in the world to be cured of his bi-lateral hearing loss through a scientific breakthrough method using a patented and specialized technique of stem cells implantation targeting the nerve cells and ear hair cells of the cochlea. Dr. Joyce Wyner, world renowned physiobiologist, describes this scientific first,

“I’m absolutely thrilled that this procedure I developed over the past several years has worked remarkably well for Jonathan. Over the course of 13 weeks the implanted stem cells have enabled Jonathan to regain all of his hearing, 100 percent. He can now lead a normal and healthy life.”

News of this spectacular success sent biotech stock named, ironically, BULL, soaring today the company that patented the process on restoring sensorineural hearing loss. CEO, Erik Venekman, of the biotech company based out of Copahagen, Denmark, talks about the next step for this amazing medical cure,

“This trial with Jonathan Wiley has obviously been a tremendous success and this is the first step of the many, many steps to help treat and cure sensorineural or nerve deafness for all babies born with a hearing loss to adults who have lived with sensorineural hearing loss. It is my expectation that in a few years this process will be available in many medical establishments around the world. Just like polio it took a world wide effort to eradicate that horrible disease, hearing loss will soon be eradicated as well. ”

Now, for those who have read this far this story is a hoax but with the advancement of stem cells or other biotechnological developments how would you react to a sudden news development that sensorineural hearing loss of a sudden can now be restored? And that babies born deaf (with nerve deafness) can now be treated and restored their hearing loss?