Stem Cell-Based Therapies in Hearing Loss

Abstract

In recent years, neural stem cell transplantation has received widespread attention as a new treatment method for supplementing specific cells damaged by disease, such as neurodegenerative diseases. A number of studies have proved that the transplantation of neural stem cells in multiple organs has an important therapeutic effect on activation and regeneration of cells, and restore damaged neurons. This article describes the methods for inducing the differentiation of endogenous and exogenous stem cells, the implantation operation and regulation of exogenous stem cells after implanted into the inner ear, and it elaborates the relevant signal pathways of stem cells in the inner ear, as well as the clinical application of various new materials. At present, stem cell therapy still has limitations, but the role of this technology in the treatment of hearing diseases has been widely recognized. With the development of related research, stem cell therapy will play a greater role in the treatment of diseases related to the inner ear.

Increased diagnostic yield in a cohort of hearing loss families using a comprehensive stepwise strategy of molecular testing

“…Thus, an effective way to treat hearing loss is to regenerate or repair damaged cells in the inner ear. During the past decade, gene therapy and neural stem cell therapy have emerged as promising treatment strategies for hearing loss ( He et al, 2021 ; Nourbakhsh et al, 2021 ; Qi et al, 2022 ). One major challenge of gene therapy is effectively delivering genes to target cells, and at present, the delivery vectors contain two types: viral and non-viral.…”

“…Among viral vectors, the Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector is suitable for the treatment of hearing loss with a number of AAV serotypes have been developed, such as AAV1( Akil et al, 2012 ), AAV-ie ( Tan et al, 2019 ; Tao et al, 2022 ), AAV9-PHP.B ( Taiber et al, 2021 ), etc. In addition to gene therapy, using stem cells to induce differentiation to regenerate or repair damaged cells in the inner ear is regarded as the most feasible treatment ( He et al, 2021 ). There are usually two routes of research: the transplantation of exogenous stem cells and their subsequent differentiation in the damaged tissue and the genetic modification of endogenous cells to promote their transdifferentiation potential ( de Felipe et al, 2011 ; Duran-Alonso, 2020 ).…”

Application of New Materials in Auditory Disease Treatment

“…Various other in vitro experiments have newly demonstrated that the cGMP-dependent atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and the permissive environment created by novel silicon micro-pillar substrates (MPS) could facilitate the survival and growth of SGNs (Mattotti et al, 2015;Sun et al, 2020). Through in vivo experiments, mesenchymal stem cells (Maharajan et al, 2021), valproic acid (VPA; 2-propylpentanoic acid) with growth factors (Wakizono et al, 2021), as well as neural stem cells (He et al, 2021) have been found to be beneficial for SGN growth.…”

Shikonin Attenuates Cochlear Spiral Ganglion Neuron Degeneration by Activating Nrf2-ARE Signaling Pathway

“…Studies have shown that because SGNs cannot regenerate, the loss of cochlear signals can lead to irreversible hearing damage ( Liu et al, 2019a ; Ding et al, 2020 ). Thus, recently many studies have focusd on the regeneration of SGN via neural stem cells ( Guo et al, 2021b ; He Z. et al, 2021 ). Spiral ganglion Schwann cells (SGSs) are glial cells responsible for myelination in the peripheral nervous system ( Wise et al, 2017 ; Meas et al, 2018 ).…”