Impairments of vision and hearing are highly prevalent conditions limiting the quality of life
and presenting a major socioeconomic burden. For a long time, retinal and cochlear …

Hearing loss, the most common human sensory defect worldwide, is a major public health
problem. About 70% of congenital forms and 25% of adult-onset forms of deafness are of …

Although hair cells regenerate spontaneously in birds and lower vertebrates following injury,
there is yet no effective way to stimulate hair cell regeneration in mature mammalian inner …

Hereditary deafness is one of the most common disabilities affecting newborns. Many forms
of hereditary deafness are caused by morphological defects of the stereocilia bundles on the …

A cochlear implant may be used to electrically stimulate spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) in
people with severe sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). However, these neurons …

Mice present an ideal model for inner ear gene therapy because their genome is being
rapidly sequenced, their generation time is relatively short, and they serve as a valuable …

Murine models are ideal for studying cochlear gene transfer, as many hearing loss-related
mutations have been discovered and mapped within the mouse genome. However, because …

To utilize the rapidly accumulating genetic information for developing new therapeutic
technologies for inner ear disease, it is necessary to design technologies for expressing …

Objectives/Hypothesis Gene therapy offers the possibility of delivering corrective genetic
materials to the cochlea, potentially improving hearing. In animals, the most commonly used …

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are of interest for cochlear gene therapy
because of their ability to mediate the efficient transfer and long-term stable expression of …