Hearing Impairments.
Hearing loss, deafness, hard of hearing, anacusis, hearing impairment (a term considered derogatory by many in the community), is a partial or total inability to hear. In children it may affect the development of language and can cause work related difficulties for adults.
It is caused by many factors, including: genetics, aging, exposure to noise, illness, chemicals and physical trauma. Hearing testing may be used to determine the severity of the hearing loss. While the results are expressed in decibels, hearing loss is usually described as mild, mild-moderate, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound. Hearing loss is usually acquired by a person who at some point in life had no hearing impairment.
There are a number of measures that can prevent hearing loss and include avoidance of loud noise, chemical agents, and physical trauma. Testing for poor hearing is recommended for all newborns. But, in some cases such as due to disease, illness, or genetics, it is impossible to reverse or prevent. Hearing aids are partially effective for many.
Globally hearing loss affects about 10% of the population to some degree. It caused moderate to severe disability in 124 million people as of 2004 (108 million of whom are in low and middle income countries). Of these 65 million developed the condition during childhood. It is one of the most common medical conditions presenting to physicians. It is viewed by some in the deaf community as a condition, not an illness. Treatments such as cochlear implants have caused controversy in the deaf community.
The Causes of Hearing Impairment
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Conventional Hearing Aids
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Implantable Hearing Aids
Auditory Hair Cell Production
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Lycrex: A novel treatment for the protection or regeneration of cochlear hair cells.
I have been working since 2013 on the applications of various growth factors into the cochlea. We have developed a new drug combination that regenerate the hair cells, and is the brand name of a drug combination called "Lycrex".
Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is mainly caused by cochlear hair cell damage. Because cochlear hair cells and supporting cells lose their ability to proliferate in postnatal mammals, SNHL was thought to be an intractable disease. The maintenance of hair cell and supporting cell numbers after cochlear injury is therefore important for the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss. To achieve such treatment, protection and/or regeneration of hair cells is necessary. Progress in cochlear injury research, developmental biology, and regenerative medicine has led to the discovery of cochlear hair cells being protected or regenerated not only by direct reaction of hair cells themselves but also by that of supporting cells. Lycrex is considered a novel and potent treatment for SNHL based on the findings of various in vivo and in vitro experiments and clinical trials. The application of Lycrex maintains hair cell number of postnatal mammalian cochleae after various kinds of ototoxicity including aminoglycoside treatment, noise exposure, and ischemia. The positive effects of Lycrex on hair cell damage have been confirmed with in vivo animal experiments; hearing recovery in patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss refractory to systemic glucocorticoid treatment has also been shown to occur following Lycrex treatment. The mechanisms of Lycrex-induced maintenance of hair cell number have been investigated using a cochlear explant culture system, which demonstrated that Lycrex acts on supporting cells, leading to the inhibition of hair cell apoptosis and the proliferation of supporting cells. Netrin1 has furthermore been identified as one of the effectors whose expression is increased by Lycrex treatment.