New over-the-counter medication can help to restore lost hearing

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

A new over-the-counter medication can help to restore lost hearing and protect from future hearing loss, according to a study.

Scientists have discovered the biological mechanism of hearing loss caused by loud noise, which helped them find a way to prevent it.

When exposed to loud noises some people experience temporary or even permanent hearing loss or drastic changes in their perception of sound after the loud noises stop.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have now discovered that this noise-induced hearing loss stems from cellular damage in the inner ear that is associated with the excess of free-floating zinc – a mineral that is essential for proper cellular function and hearing.

Their experiments showed that drugs that work as molecular sponges trapping excess zinc can help restore lost hearing or, if administered before an expected loud sound exposure, can protect from hearing loss.

Professor Thanos Tzounopoulos from the Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center said: “Noise-induced hearing loss can be debilitating. Some people start hearing sounds that aren’t there, developing a condition called tinnitus, which severely affects a person’s quality of life.

“Noise-induced hearing loss impairs millions of lives but, because the biology of hearing loss is not fully understood, preventing hearing loss has been an ongoing challenge.”

To get their results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team studied the inner ear cells of mice.

They found that hours after mice are exposed to loud noise, their inner ear zinc level spikes which, ultimately, leads to cellular damage and disrupts normal cell-to-cell communication.

Thankfully, mice who were treated with a slow-releasing compound that trapped excess free zinc were less prone to hearing loss and were protected from noise-induced damage.

This opens the door for a possible solution to the problem and lays the groundwork for the development of effective and minimally invasive treatments in the future.

The researchers hope to test this treatment further with goal of making it available as a simple, over-the-counter option to protect oneself from hearing loss.