Gene Therapy For Hearing Loss

Human hair cells. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Virginia Health System)



A novel gene therapy approach has been developed by the scientists in University of Virgina Health System to treat the patients with genetic or acquired hearing loss.

The research has focused on a gene called KCNQ4. It is said that this gene is responsible for genetic hearing loss in human when it get mutated. According to the resources, Dr. Jeffrey Holt, associate professor of neuroscience and otolaryngology at UVa, and his research team, including Dr. Bradley Kesser, an assistant professor of otolaryngology, have engineered a correct version of this gene. Then they have transferred these modified genes in to hair cells obtained from inner ears of people having genetic hearing loss, by using a gene therapy delivery system, developed by this team

"Our results show that gene therapy reagents are effective in human inner ear tissue” says Dr. Holt.

Hair cells are special kind of cells that lines the cochlear (cochlea is the portion of the inner ear that is responsible for hearing) There are hair-like projections in each hair cell. When a sound wave hits these projections an electric signal is generated and transferred to the brain. When brain receives this signal the corresponding sound that generated the signal is identified by the person. This is the theory of hearing. In a patient with hearing disability, these hair cells are either absent, low or damaged.

Past research by Dr. Holt revealed the speed at which hair cells develop in mouse embryos. Therefore it is expected that this team of scientists lead by Dr. Holt would someday find out a perfect cure for genetic or acquired hearing loss.

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Superhuman Vision

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a assistant professor of electrical engineering, University of Washington in Seattle. This simply means that you would possibly see anything that is projected on to the display of your contact lenses along with the natural objects that we see on the world outside..such as in science fictions. Surprising..isnt it?

Well…UW engineers have already developed a prototype of this amazing device and have already tested on rabbits for any adverse-effects. The results were truly encouraging —no adverse effects were produced by the rabbits after testing for up to 20 minutes.

The lens comprises of an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display. As this still a prototype the display does not light up yet. “A full-fledged display won't be available for a while, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational ‘fairly quickly’ ” according to Parviz.

In order to develop a safer devise with no adverse effects for eyes, engineers have used flexible organic materials to build up its electronic circuits. A method called microfabrication technique known as self-assembly has been used to set its tiny electronic components in the correct positions within the circuit. Designers of the devise say that these components will not affect the lens-wearers vision as they entirely occupy the positions outside the transparent region of the eye.

Still, researchers are continuously working on the devise in order to place further improvements to enable wireless communication, and to power up the lens using radio-frequency power and solar cells.

(same article on www.compuzer.blogspot.com by same author)

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Cancer cells to ' commit suicide '..?

Researchers in the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow have developed a novel technology to treat cancers. Researchers were already able to treat several types of tumors including bowel cancer, cervical and bone cells.

The new method involves the activation of a specialized gene by the cancer cells which in turn, causes their own death. The gene is described as p73. According to the researchers, this new technology can be effectively used as an alternative to some of the current existing cancer treatment methods as most of these methods are based on a gene called p53 which is also an important gene in controlling cancers. But the main need for an alternation is that in most cases of cancers, p53 gene is held disabled. Scientists are actively working on these disabled p53 gene in order to find out a successful method to restore their function as a way of treating the disease. But the main strategy is that in some cases these p53 genes are kept disabled in such a way that its function cannot be restored. This is where the gene p73 comes in to the action.

Scientists were able to activate p73 by synthetic DNA nano-particles in order to provide a way to force cancer cells to commit suicide.

“This technology, developed in collaboration with Professor Uchegbu's group, has allowed us for the first time to demonstrate that selective activation of the gene p73 can cause cell death in tumours. We showed that it is possible to force cancer cells to commit suicide in two ways: firstly through expression of a gene coding for a small peptide and secondly by using RNA interference. Both approaches activate p73 by reducing the activity of cellular p73 inhibitors.” Says Dr Schatzlein, Reader in the Cancer Research UK Biomolecular Structure Group.

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