New Therapy May Regenerate Lost Sensory Hearing Cells

Also: Somerville's Medically Supervised Drug Use Clinic Delayed Opening ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( September 14, 2020 Good afternoon, CommonHealth editor Carey Goldberg is out so you get to hear from me, reporter Angus Chen, this week. I have a slight break from COVID-19 news for you. It's follow up data to an early phase clinical trial that shows an experimental therapy may provide lasting benefits to people suffering from hearing loss. Typically, when you lose an inner ear sensory hair cell, which allows you to detect sound, they're gone forever. But Frequency Therapeutics, a Woburn-based biotech firm, is testing a therapy that might allow some patients to regenerate those lost cells. What's the catch? Only a small number of patients benefitted from Frequency's drug in the trial. But those benefits lasted up to 21 months, which hints at the possibility that the drug might offer a chance at recovering lost hearing. When I was working on this story, Frequency scientists played for me a sample of an audio test they use to evaluate participants' hearing. A recorded voice asks you to repeat words back to you while a nonsensical babble of conversation plays in the background. As the recording goes on, the voice gets softer and softer until it merges with the unintelligible chatter, simulating how difficult it is for people with hearing loss to understand conversation in our noisy world. Hearing aids can increase the volume of sound for patients, but it does nothing to help the clarity of sound. Cochlear implants only go so far with that as well. Regenerating lost sensory hair cells would be the first true treatment for age-related hearing loss, which afflicts one out of three people over 65 – and it would be a holy grail for researchers in the field. — Angus Rohan Chen, health reporter newsletters@wbur.org The Rundown url[Don't Shout Yet: Drug To Regenerate Hearing Shows Early But Muted Promise In New Trial]( In a long-term follow up the clinical trial, researchers found that a few participants still had improved hearing up to one to two years after they received a single injection of the drug. [Read more.](   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [Somerville Delays Plan To Open First Supervised Drug Use Clinic In Massachusetts]( Such sites are illegal under federal law and U.S. attorneys in Massachusetts and Washington D.C. say that anyone operating the medically supervised site for drug use would be prosecuted. 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It's been very energizing for me personally to be part of this exciting research. — Dr. Susan King, University of Texas Health Science Center, "[Don't Shout Yet: Drug To Regenerate Hearing Shows Early But Muted Promise In New Trial]( ICYMI [In The Isolation Dorm: Doubts, Fears And Tedium When A Boston Student Tests Positive]( When a test comes back positive, the student and everyone they had close contact with must go into isolation and quarantine. The protocol is there to protect the student body, as well as the community around the university campus, but the experience of isolation adds a new layer of stress to an already unusual back to school season.      Did you know scientists say they've detected a possible [sign of life on Venus?]( 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. 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