An international team of researchers has developed a new method to deliver drugs into the inner ear. This breakthrough was made possible by utilizing the natural circulation of liquids in the brain and using a little-understood backdoor into the cochlea. By using this approach to administer gene the
. The study was the product of a collaboration between researchers at the two universities and a group led by Barbara Canlon, Ph. in the Laboratory of Experimental Audiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
While hair cells are not naturally regenerated in humans and other mammals, gene therapies have shown promise and in separate studies have successfully repaired the function of hair cells in neo-natal and very young mice. However, as both mice and humans age, the cochlea, already a delicate structure, becomes enclosed in the temporal bone. At this point, any effort to reach the cochlea and deliver gene therapy via surgery risks damaging this sensitive area and altering hearing.
Scientists are developing a clearer picture of the mechanics of the glymphatic system, the brain’s unique process of removing waste first described by the Nedergaard lab in 2012. Because the glymphatic system pumps cerebrospinal fluid deep into brain tissue to wash away toxic proteins, researchers have been eyeing it as a potentially new way to deliver drugs into the brain, a major challenge in developing drugs for neurological disorders.
Employing a number of imagining and modeling technologies, the researchers were able to develop a detailed portrait of how fluid from other parts of the brain flows through the cochlear aqueduct and into the inner ear. The team then injected an adeno-associatedinto the cisterna magna, a large reservoir of cerebrospinal fluid found at the base of the skull.
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