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Gene therapy restored hearing in deaf patients

“This is a huge step forward in the genetic treatment of deafness, one that can be life-changing for children and adults,” says Maoli Duan, consultant and docent at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and one of the study’s corresponding authors. The study comprised ten patients between the ages of 1 and 24 at five hospitals in China, all of whom had a genetic form of deafness or severe hearing impairment caused by mutations in a gene

Deaf Teenager and 24-Year-Old Gain Ability to Hear After Experimental Gene Therapy

In recent years, gene therapy has emerged as a promising treatment for genetic forms of congenital deafness—hearing loss that’s present at birth—in children. A new study shows that gene therapy can bestow hearing in teenagers and adults with this condition, too. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Medicine, recruited patients with deafness or severe hearing impairment caused by mutations in the OTOF gene. This gene manufactures a protein called Otoferlin, which plays a critical