Natural History of Autosomal Dominant Hearing Loss

Summary

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Description

Hereditary hearing loss is one of the most common sensory disabilities affecting newborns (approximately 1/1000 live births). Currently, the main treatment options for patients with hereditary hearing loss include hearing aids and cochlear implantation. Both of these treatment options have limitatio...

Hereditary hearing loss is one of the most common sensory disabilities affecting newborns (approximately 1/1000 live births). Currently, the main treatment options for patients with hereditary hearing loss include hearing aids and cochlear implantation. Both of these treatment options have limitations and are incapable of restoring natural hearing. Over the past few years, several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using gene therapy to improve hearing in mouse models of human hereditary hearing loss. Nonsyndromic autosomal dominant sensorineural hearing loss (DFNA) is an attractive target for gene therapy since patients with DFNA usually develop hearing loss later during childhood or even adulthood7. This allows for a longer time period during which therapeutic intervention can be delivered before the onset of potentially irreversible functional and pathologic changes. The genome editing technology has the potential of correcting the underlying genetic mutations in affected cell types8. In this study, we plan to assess the efficacy of genome editing on cultured primary or immortalized fibroblasts obtained from DFNA patients. These patients and their family members will also be followed longitudinally to better characterize the natural history of DFNA. This will provide baseline data for DFNA that will be important for interpreting the results of future clinical trials of inner ear gene therapy.

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