A new gene therapy is giving people born deaf the chance to hear, often within just weeks. In a small but groundbreaking study, researchers delivered a working copy of a key hearing gene directly into the inner ear using a single injection. All ten patients, ranging from young children to adults, experienced improved hearing, with some showing rapid gains in just one month.

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[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 43 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

A single gene therapy shot helped people born deaf start hearing again

I can't help but find this sentence amusing. If born deaf, aren't they hearing for the first time? I know the explanations for this, but it's still sloppy writing, IMHO.

[–] homes@piefed.world 29 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Don’t even get me started on that click bait headline. Of the multitudinous causes of deafness, this only treats a very narrow group of people.

[–] waddle_dee@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Agreed. The AAV delivery isn't even new. It's just treating the signal from inner hair cells IHC to the brain, improving it. Most deafness comes from either damage/mutations to the IHC or Cochlea. In the case of a very close family member, they were born without IHC. Most or all, were gone. This is due to genetics, or viruses, commonly. In the case of my family member, it was the latter.

Those IHC are also what cause age related hearing loss and acoustic hearing loss. They get damaged over time, and with loud noises. Effectively, curing that is the cure for deafness. The problem with that is, the ability for regeneration diminishes with age. We can't figure out a way to grow them, consistently, safely, and lasting. Because stem cell therapy is wild.

[–] hardcoreufo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I'm not sure if it would help me for instance. Every male on one side of the family has hearing loss. I seem to have the least loss in my generation with almost none in one ear and the other working okay in low freq but pretty much nothing above 500 Hz. So its definitely genetic but I've never been tested for this gene. Would get a shot in my bad ear if it meant I could hear better though.

[–] SineSwiper@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

A headline on c/Science is lying to me and is full of shoddy errors in the study? Here's my shocked Pikachu face.