source: [HOH-LD-News] Volume 36 Issue 1
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- Article 3: Chemical Combo May Prevent Hearing Loss
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Editor: We've seen several companies re****t that certain drugs
and chemicals are effective in preventing noise-induced hearing
loss. Here's another promising candidate from the Oklahoma
Medical Research Foundation, the Hough Ear Institute, and
INTEGRIS Health.
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In today's military, soldiers can be hurt by more than just
bullets, and one very sensitive area has been under constant
attack-the ears. Even with external hearing protection, the
sounds of warfare can damage the sensitive inner ear, or
cochlea, and severely reduce hearing.
But a new drug combination, developed through a collaboration of
the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the Hough Ear along
with sup****t from INTEGRIS Health, has shown promise in reducing
hearing loss. The treatment could have both military and
civilian applications.
OMRF's Robert Floyd, Ph.D., working with Hough CEO and retired
Army ear surgeon Richard Kopke, M.D., found that a combination
of two compounds-4-OHPBN nitrone and the drug
n-acetyl-cysteine-could stop damage to the inner ear caused by
acute acoustic trauma.
"This is a very exciting finding," said Floyd, who holds the
Merrick Foundation Chair in Aging Research at OMRF. "The
research is still at a pre-clinical stage, but we're hopeful
that we soon can begin testing in humans."
According to a 2003 study by the Institute of Medicine, "Noise
and Military Service: Implications for Hearing Loss and
Tinnitus," hearing loss is the second most common type of
disability among veterans, accounting for more than 75,000 cases
of disability. "Hearing loss costs the U.S. Department of
Defense about $1 billion a year," Kopke said. "It's the most
common injury for which people are evacuated from a war zone.
I've known some 30-year-olds who come out of the service with
the hearing of a 70-year-old."
If medics are equipped with the drug combination, he said, they
could administer it in the field, immediately after an explosion
or other combat situation causes noise damage.
Without the medication, prolonged exposure to loud noise can
damage and kill hair cells that register sound, causing hearing
loss. But in laboratory animals, the hearing loss was almost
completely prevented if the drug combination was given within
four hours of exposure to noise levels that would otherwise
cause acoustic trauma. Significant decreases were also seen if
the combination was administration within 24 hours of exposure.
Current tests are being performed on chinchillas because their
hearing range is similar to humans. Electric impulses in the
brain are measured to gauge how well the animals hear after
taking the drugs.
"If this therapy ultimately proves effective," said Floyd, "it
could also have many civilian applications, including combating
age-related hearing loss." According to a National Health
Interview Survey Core, 1 in 3 Americans over the age of 70
re****ted that they had trouble hearing. And the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health re****ts that
approximately 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous
noise levels on the job.
The discovery is the product of a four-year collaboration
between Floyd and Kopke, whose work was funded by the U.S.
Department of Defense Office of Naval Research.
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