Hearing loss is the third most
common health problem in the United States with increasing rate. To the date,
there are at least 36 million Americans reported lost hearing according to
WebMD.
Patients who suffer from hearing
loss usually wear a hearing aid or have cochlear implant. Hearing aids amplify
sounds so that damaged ears can detect them. Comparing to hearing aids, cochlear
implant is very different and much more powerful. A cochlear implant is a
complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to patients
who are profoundly deaf. It consists of an external portion and an internal
portion. The external part is where a microphone and a speech processor are
located right above the ear. The microphone can pick up sound and send to the
speech process, which selects and arranges the sounds. Signals of the sounds
then were passed to the stimulator of the internal part and were converted into
electric impulses. Another part of the internal part, electrode array, collects
the impulses from stimulator to its position in the cochlear and sends the
impulses to the auditory nerve.
According to ScienceDaily, researchers at University of New South Wales,
Australia have successfully regrew auditory nerves by delivering electrical
pulses from a cochlear implant to deliver gene therapy. The principle behind
this method is using electrical pulses delivered from the cochlear implant to
deliver the DNA to the cells close to the array of implanted electrodes. And
then these cells produce neurotrophins. After a couple months the neurotrophins
were generated, the hearing nerve maybe maintained by ongoing neural activity
made by the cochlear implant.
This result is an important
breakthrough of gene therapy for possible treating different kinds of
neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and other
psychiatric conditions. With advanced technology nowadays, it seems that we are
able to cure devastating disorders in the soon future.
Posted by Yim Hui (B)
Posted by Yim Hui (B)
This was an interesting post, I'm just uncertain about one thing. How did the electrical impulses deliver DNA, and what was the origin of said DNA?
ReplyDeletePosted by Tim Daly
Thank you Tim. So during the surgery of cochlear implant, the surgeon who is installing the device would inject the DNA solution into the cochlea. Then the device would fire electrical impulses to trigger the DNA transfer once the implant is inserted. And the origin of the DNA solution is lab-made, in which the gene sequence was built based on normal auditory nerve gene sequence.
DeletePosted by Yim Hui
In the brain, it is commonly known that nerves that are used repetitively are strengthened, making you better at the things you practice. However, this new development of shocking nerves to make them regrow is totally new. It makes sense that a nerve would adapt when constantly stimulates, but actually using this principle in therapy is amazing.
ReplyDelete-JE
Absolutely! And we are aiming for more advanced technology for building these kind of electronic devices to inject DNA solutions into test subjects, such as lab mice for DNA repair process.
DeletePosted by Yim Hui
this is very interesting to read about! Do you know if this is still in the experimental stages or if they plan on using them for patients in the near future?
ReplyDeletePosted by Kristen Whitehead
This is almost a breakthrough in science because scientists can now link parts of the brain to technology for full function. Do you think it is possible that they could apply this to other areas such as prosthetics?
ReplyDelete-Nicole B