Posted on: 13 February 2017, source: Medical News
A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital reported back in 2015 that they were able to restore rudimentary hearing in genetically deaf mice using gene therapy. The Boston Children's hospital research team recently reports that they have restored a much higher level of hearing - down to 25 decibels, the equivalent of a whisper. They used an improved gene therapy vector developed at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Although previous vectors have only been able to penetrate the cochlea's inner hair cells, the first Nature Biotechnology study reveals that a new synthetic vector, "Anc80," is capable of transferring genes to the inaccessible outer hair cells when introduced into the cochlea.