Researchers have developed a new magnetic delivery method that may prevent by 50 per cent the hearing loss caused as a result of treatment by a widely used chemotherapy drug.
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Cisplatin:
- Cisplatin is commonly used to treat childhood cancers but can lead to permanent.
- Or severe high frequency hearing loss in nine out of 10 children following treatment.
- Steroids can reduce cisplatin-induced hearing loss but they may also reduce the effectiveness of cisplatin’s ability to kill cancer cells.
- This means they need to be directly delivered to the cochlea to be effective and to avoid this side-effect.
According to study:
- In the study, the researchers used magnetic fields to push drug-covered iron nanoparticles into the cochlea or the inner ear.
- And reduced hearing loss in mice treated with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin by 50 per cent.
- It is great news that progress is being made towards finding new ways.
- To protect children’s hearing following cancer treatment with cisplatin which causes the sensory hair cells in the cochlea that detect sound to die.
- And can leave cancer survivors who have already gone through a traumatic experience depressed and isolated,said researcher.
- The approach, is significantly more efficient than a normal intra-tympanic injection.
- And could be used to deliver any drug to the ear and can also be used to deliver drugs into eyes or into the skin, the researchers noted.
- Researchers anticipate that the novel approach could also be used to deliver a wide range.
- In addition,of drug, gene and stem cell-based treatments to ultimately treat many different types of hearing loss.