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The study provides a proof of concept (which serves to verify that a theory can be exploited in a useful way) that the combination of optical stimulation with genetic manipulation can restore the perception of sound.
The team, led by Christian Wroberl of the German University of Göttingen, uses optogenetics, a method that combines optical and genetic methods, to achieve his published experience today. by Science Translational Medicine.
Worldwide, there are approximately 360 million people with hearing loss and traditional cochlear implants can recover the ability of many of them by stimulating ear cells with electrical signals. .
However, the ability of these devices to transduce (transform one type of signal into another) sound in noisy environments can be hindered.
Experts designed a light-based cochlear implant that "could potentially produce spatially accurate stimulation of ear cells," according to the study.
Experiments were conducted on adult gerbils (rodents) whose cochlea is larger than that of other rodents and which detect the lowest frequencies that a person will hear.
The animals were trained to jump an obstacle after hearing an alarm, then the scientists injected a virus with a gene capable of encoding a light-sensitive ion channel into the cclea, to allow their neurons in that area to be activated by light.
They also implanted fiber optics in the rodent nucleus to emit light signals, the study says.
Gerbils with this implant overcame the obstacle when the cells of the elbow were stimulated with a blue light instead of the alarm, "suggesting that animals recorded light stimulation as a sound".
In a subsequent test, the authors induced deafness in a group of rodents carrying the implant and found that although these gerbils could no longer hear the alarm, they continue to jump the obstacle when they are subjected to optical stimulation. indicates that the implant successfully recovers the auditory response in animals. "
Source: EFE
Photo: YouTube capture
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