Health Farm

-- Regenerative treatment could supersede hearing aids

MIT spinout Frequency Therapeutics is developing a novel kind of regenerative treatment to repair hearing loss.

The biotech company is testing a regime that involves injecting progenitor cells - a descendent of stem cells - into the inner ear to rebuild tiny hair cells that enable humans to hear.

Inner hair cells transform sound vibrations in fluids of the cochlea into electrical signals that are then relayed via the auditory nerve to the auditory brainstem and auditory cortex.

Excessive noise and medicines, such as certain chemotherapies and antibiotics, can damage hair cells, resulting in permanent hearing loss.

Frequency’s regime is injected into the ear to rebuild hair cells inside the cochlea.

In stage 1 clinical trials some participants showed an increased ability to interpret and distinguish words, based on speech perception tests, with some responses lasting almost two years.

To date, the company has dosed over 200 people and found clinically significant improvements in speech perception in three different clinical investigations.

Another study found no difference in hearing between the treatment group and the placebo group, however, the manufacturer attributes this to problems in the trial’s design.

Now Frequency is recruiting for a 124-person trial from which preliminary results should be available early next year.