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Experimental gene therapy allows kids with inherited deafness to hear
Gene therapy has allowed several children born with inherited deafness to hear. A small study published Wednesday documents significantly restored hearing in five of six kids treated in China.
Hereditary deafness is the latest condition scientists are targeting with gene therapy, which is already approved to treat illnesses such as sickle cell disease and severe hemophilia. “No treatment could reverse hearing loss … That’s why we were always trying to develop a therapy,” said Zheng-Yi Chen of Boston’s Mass Eye and Ear, a senior author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Lancet. The Philadelphia hospital — one of several sites in a test sponsored by a subsidiary of Eli Lilly called Akouos — reported that their patient, Aissam Dam of Spain, heard sounds for the first time after being treated in October.
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