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Hearing Loss News
Aug. 15, 2024 — A new study found in adult power loom weavers, chronic noise exposure not only increased their blood pressure overall, but also each year of exposure increased their odds of having high blood ...
May 10, 2024 — As often as four days a week, Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island fly loops overhead as pilots practice touch-and-go landings. The noise is ...
Mar. 6, 2024 — Certain factors associated with developing age-related hearing loss differ by sex, including weight, smoking behavior, and hormone exposure, according to a new ...
Mar. 4, 2024 — A new cell phone app developed by physician-scientists, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately diagnose ear infections, or acute otitis media (AOM), could help decrease unnecessary ...
Feb. 26, 2024 — While it's not surprising to spot teens wearing headphones and earbuds, it's also becoming a widespread trend among younger children, a national poll ...
Feb. 12, 2024 — Drugs that trap excess zinc in the inner ear could help restore lost hearing or, if administered before an expected loud sound exposure, can protect from hearing loss, study ...
Feb. 8, 2024 — People with aphasia have more trouble coming up with words they want to use when they're prompted by images and words that carry negative emotional meaning, new research ...
Jan. 24, 2024 — A novel gene therapy for hearing loss was administered to six children in China in a clinical trial. Each child had an inherited deafness caused by mutations in the OTOF gene, called DFNB9. The ...
Jan. 24, 2024 — In a new study, researchers combined OCT retinal imaging, genetics and big data to estimate how likely a person is to develop eye and systemic diseases in the future. They found significant ...
Jan. 19, 2024 — One in three children who suffer from bacterial meningitis live with permanent neurological disabilities due to the ...
Jan. 16, 2024 — This month, a group of stroke survivors in British Columbia will test a new technology designed to aid their recovery, and ultimately restore use of their limbs and hands. Participants will wear a ...
Jan. 8, 2024 — A person's hearing can be damaged by loud noise, aging and even certain medications, with little recourse beyond a hearing aid or cochlear ...
Jan. 5, 2024 — In a new study featuring data from 573,088 people, researchers have found a link between hearing loss and the development of dementia. The study is the largest of its kind to ...
Jan. 4, 2024 — A new study shows that adults with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24% lower risk of mortality than those who never wore ...
Jan. 3, 2024 — The temporary, repeated hearing loss caused by chronic ear infections can affect language skills years ...
Dec. 27, 2023 — Researchers have identified a wide range of risk factors for young-onset dementia. The findings challenge the notion that genetics are the sole cause of the condition, laying the groundwork for new ...
Dec. 1, 2023 — Maternal-fetal listeriosis is a severe disease that can lead to miscarriage, premature birth or serious neonatal infection. But what are the long-term consequences of neonatal listeriosis on the ...
Nov. 30, 2023 — Researchers have uncovered that tinnitus, an incurable persistent ringing or other sounds in the ears, might result from underlying auditory nerve damage that can't be detected on conventional ...
Nov. 22, 2023 — Scientists can now pinpoint where someone is looking just by listening to their ears. Following a discovery that the ears emit subtle sounds when the eyes move, a new report finds that decoding the ...
Nov. 21, 2023 — A team of researchers employed hearing tests and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine whether hearing impairment is associated with differences in specific brain regions and affects dementia ...
Can COVID Cause Hearing Loss? Study Finds Link Among Young Adults
A new study suggests that a COVID-19 infection could lead to yet another side effect: hearing loss.
The findings, published recently in the journal eClinical Medicine, revealed that younger adults who tested positive for COVID had a nearly four times higher risk of developing hearing loss than those who didn't.
Experts said the research shows that hearing loss may be another symptom of long COVID that physicians should keep an eye on.
"This study adds important evidence to the conversation about long COVID by highlighting a potential long-term complication that may affect young adults," Yun Hwan Oh, MD, study author and a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Chung-Ang University in South Korea, told Health.
"It suggests that the impact of COVID-19 on hearing health could be a significant aspect of long COVID, even in a population that is generally considered to be at lower risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes."
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Oh and his team became interested in studying the link between COVID and hearing loss after noticing a lack of large-scale studies examining the association, particularly in young adults. "While some case reports and small-scale studies had suggested a potential link, there was insufficient evidence from population-based studies," he said. To fill in the gap, the researchers turned to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency-COVID-19 National Health Insurance Service database. They pulled information on more than six million people, aged 20 to 39, who tested positive for COVID from 2020 to the end of 2022. As Oh explained, they chose to focus on younger adults because it "helps isolate the effects of COVID-19 on hearing, as this group typically has fewer age-related hearing issues." After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, household income, medical history, and whether a person was vaccinated against COVID or not, the researchers found that hearing loss was more prevalent among people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID illness. Specifically, participants with COVID had a 3.4 times higher risk of developing hearing loss. "The most surprising finding was the magnitude of the increased risk," Oh said. Participants who had been infected with COVID were also 3.5 times more likely to experience sensorineural hearing loss, which occurs when damage occurs to the hair cells in the inner ear, the vestibulocochlear nerve connecting the inner ear to the brain, or the brain's central processing centers. Oh said a key takeaway from the study is "the need for increased awareness among healthcare providers and young adults about the potential risk of hearing impairment following COVID-19 infection." People who are undecided about whether to get the new COVID vaccine should take this research into consideration, experts said. "It's one of the arguments I make for young people getting vaccinated: the data now, in numerous studies, show vaccination—should you get infected—reduces the risk of getting long COVID," William Schaffner, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Health. "And anything that reduces the risk of getting long COVID really is worthwhile." According to experts, there's no reason to believe that if COVID can indeed cause hearing loss, the symptoms wouldn't extend to older people as well as younger adults. The study has several limitations, however. "[There is] potential selection bias, as individuals seeking COVID-19 diagnosis [who were included in the study] might be more likely to seek hearing loss diagnosis," Oh said. He added that the results may not be generalizable to people of other "populations with different healthcare systems, genetic backgrounds, and virus variants." The study also doesn't prove that COVID causes hearing loss but simply shows an association between the two. Additionally, researchers don't have solid answers about why COVID may affect hearing. However, Oh said several theories have been proposed. "These include direct viral damage to the inner ear, microvascular damage, immunologic responses to the cochlea, and the generation of proinflammatory cytokines," he said. The new research highlights how much researchers still don't know about how COVID affects the body, Fernando Carnavali, MD, a physician at the Center for Post-COVID Care at Mount Sinai, told Health. "This points to the fact that this [area of study] is still in its infancy," he said. Still, Schaffner said that if you're experiencing any unusual symptoms—including hearing loss—after being infected with COVID, it's worth speaking to your doctor about them if they interfere with your day-to-day life. As researchers learn more about how COVID affects hearing health, it may become necessary to screen some people for hearing loss as part of their follow-up care after a COVID infection, Oh said. But for now, experts stressed that the most important thing people need to know—especially going into cold and flu season—is that COVID comes with more risks than acute illness.Thanks for your feedback!
Eyes, Ears Get Their Due With Cell And Gene Therapy
Eyes and ears. Two of our most critical sensory organs yet usually taken for granted—until something goes wrong. But while largely ignored by busy individuals and most insurance plans, biopharma R&D—specifically cell and gene therapy—is paying attention.
Let's start with hearing. The human ear is made up of three different parts: the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear—a complex structure offering many opportunities for something to go wrong.
Hearing Loss Breakthroughs
This spring, Regeneron made headlines when it announced that the investigational gene therapy DB-OTO improved hearing in two young children with "profound genetic deafness" since birth, with one patient returning to normal hearing levels within six months of treatment. In this case, the children's hearing loss was due to a deficiency in otoferlin, a protein expressed in the hair cells of the inner ear. Regeneron's gene therapy delivers a functioning copy of the gene to the inner ear, stimulating otoferlin production.
Eli Lilly subsidiary Akouos and Fudan University in Shanghai and Mass Eye and Ear have also enjoyed early success with otoferlin gene therapies. Of course, these therapies will only help the 1% to 8% of patients afflicted by this particular genetic mutation. However, according to the American Hearing Research Foundation, about 75% of congenital deafness has a genetic cause, indicating the potential for more gene therapies.
Although I can hear perfectly well, hearing loss is a condition with which I am quite familiar. My grandfather was born deaf. He never knew the cause but, today, he could have had his DNA tested and had the hope of a treatment on the horizon.
Ocular CGT Advances
On the ocular side, cell and gene therapies are making progress against more common diseases like wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness, as well as dry eye syndrome (DED)—and here my interest is even more personal. Four years ago, I began to experience a scratchy, gritty sensation in my eyes. This quickly graduated to a burning, sandpaper-dry condition that makes everyday tasks—like driving a car or staring at a computer screen—challenging. I'm far from the only one dealing with these issues. I've commiserated with at least two colleagues, which isn't surprising as DED affects around one in 11 people worldwide, according to the NIH.
After exhausting the first tier of treatments—such as prescription eye drops, omega-3 fatty acids, intense pulsed light therapy and scleral contact lenses—I learned about a cellular therapy called amniotic membrane treatment. Extracted from the innermost layer of the human placenta, amniotic membrane is full of neurotrophic factors such as nerve growth factor, collagen and basal epithelial cells. It also contains unique anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic and pro-healing properties that can help ease conditions like DED, corneal neuropathic pain, graft versus host disease and post-corneal transplants, according to an article published in Ocular Surface.
A 2018 study found that 74 of 84 patients enjoyed an improved ocular surface and a "notable" reduction in symptom severity after just over a week of treatment with amniotic membrane. As with many therapies, it doesn't always work the first time; 10% of eyes in this study required repeated treatment, and I personally am on my second round. Interestingly, this study breaks the data down by individual eyes, as patients did not always have the same response in both eyes. I have so far experienced slightly better results in my right eye from this second round of treatment.
Companies are also making progress on the gene therapy side, specifically for wet AMD. REGENXBIO and AbbVie, Adverum and 4D Molecular Therapeutics have all seen positive results from their investigative gene therapies for this condition, which affects around 1.5 million people in the U.S. Alone—a far bigger patient population than current rare disease gene therapies target.
The mechanism for these wet AMD treatments is also different from traditional gene therapies, which work by repairing or replacing a faulty disease-causing gene. For wet AMD, investigational gene therapies deliver the coding sequence for the therapeutic molecule to the eye, which serves as a biofactory to produce the medicine. This could ease the treatment burden of the multiple injections currently required to treat the disease.
Several other companies, including AbbVie and Capsida Biotherapeutics, Kriya Therapeutics and SpliceBio, are developing gene therapies to treat thyroid eye disease, inherited retinal disease and more.
Having been treated with one of these therapies, I can also attest to the fact that they are not cheap. But progress is being made. While gene therapies for rare diseases that correct or replace a faulty gene can carry a multi-million-dollar price tag, experts say the cost of the wet AMD treatments currently in development will be much lower. There is definitely a ray of light and a joyful noise on the horizon.
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