A research group from the American Institute of Scripps identify specific genetic code, which allows the hearing aid, human response to sound waves in the environment and convert them into electrical signals and transmit pulse to the inner ear and brain. In the new study, experts were able to identify the specific genetic code and chemical components responsible for the conversion of audio into a format that is understood by the brain.
Doctors say that in the future this may lead to the development of genetic drugs to combat the hearing impaired. The results of its study, the experts reported in the latest issue of the scientific journal Cell. "Different teams of scientists for decades have tried to understand the foundations of biological principles of hearing people. We were able to identify specific proteins that affect the ear canal ", - professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Scripps Ulrich Mueller. According to him, the study was carried out on the example mice, but the biological principles of hearing both mice and humans are one.
Muller says that sometimes people get hearing damage as a result of an ear or head injuries in general, but often people are not receiving any injury from birth or in early childhood are deaf or have very poor hearing. Here, in most cases the causes are rooted in genetic defects. That makes sense to conduct gene therapy to restore hearing. Publication experts say that they have studied genetic mechanism of the auditory receptors are responsible for the work of the ear canal, as well as nerve endings extending from the receptor. The researchers also say that the hearing aid - a body, which first appeared about 120 million years ago in the body of the dinosaurs. Even then prehistoric reptiles emerged a body such as the inner ear. Of course, over 120 million years of the auditory system slightly modified, but the basic principle remains the same.
