Deafness can be treated with gene therapy

Experiments conducted on laboratory mice suggest that it is possible to treat deafness with the help of new gene therapy, the media reports.

The scientific journal Nature Biotechnology writes that after the therapy, completely deaf animals gained almost normal hearing, that is, they could hear sounds of 25 decibels.

Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital believe that in the near future this therapy will be tested on humans.

According to them, the action of gene therapy is based on the correction of errors that lead to defects in the microscopic hairs of the ear, which are crucial for sound processing.

For this purpose, a synthetic virus was used that successfully transmitted the necessary genetic information.

Researchers believe that errors in DNA are responsible for half of all cases of deafness.