The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog


Possible Total Tinnitus Cure on the Horizon

Written by AudioNotch Team on February 03, 2013

Categories: Hearing Tinnitus
Tags:

Most individuals with tinnitus appear to have the “sensorineural” variant. In this variant of tinnitus, the symptom is caused by the following cascade of events:

  1. Noise exposure causes cochlear hearing cell death
  2. The auditory cortex is deprived of normal input from part of the hearing range
  3. A neuroplastic re-wiring occurs in an attempt to compensate, which results in tinnitus
Thus, the hope for many is to restore the normal input from hearing loss in the hope that the brain will “re-wire” and correct back to the normal, tinnitus-free perception of sound. Research on stem cell transplantation has yielded some fruit in this regard, but in the nearer term, the hope is that a drug could provide the same regenerative effect.
Now, Edge and his colleagues have tested several gamma-secretase inhibitors to find the one with the strongest regenerative effect on inner ear stem cells. They then tested that drug on adult mice that had been deafened after 2 hours in an extremely loud sound chamber. The drug prompted supporting cells in the inner ear to become hair cells, and the treated mice regained some hearing, the group reports online today in Neuron.
A tinnitus cure may be on the horizon. Have hope.
In the meantime, there is AudioNotch, which can significantly lower the volume of your tinnitus, thereby reducing your distress.