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GENE THERAPY ADMINISTERED VIA VIRUS CURES DEAFNESS IN 11-YEAR-OLD BOY..."THERE’S NO SOUND I DON’T LIKE."
Futurism ^ | January 24, 2024 | SHARON ADARLO

Posted on 01/26/2024 7:47:15 PM PST by Red Badger

An 11-year-old boy with congenital deafness can now hear sound after he received groundbreaking gene therapy that replaces a mutated gene with the correct version, The New York Times reports.

"There’s no sound I don’t like," said the boy Aissam Dam via interpreters to the NYT. "They’re all good."

Dam's deafness was due to a mutation to a gene called otoferlin, according to the news outlet. The gene makes a protein that's a key component in relaying sound between the inner ear and brain, but a mutated version of the otoferlin gene impedes this process, impacting around 200,000 people across the globe.

In early October last year, Dam was the first person in America to receive the otoferlin gene therapy as part of a clinical study by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Akouos, a gene therapy business Eli Lilly bought in 2022.

At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers injected into one of Dam's ears liquid containing a benign virus carrying functional copies of the otoferlin genes. Specifically, they squirted the normal genes into his cochlea, a spiral-shaped hollow in the inner ear that's filled with liquid and lined with hair cells that send sound information to the brain.

It took a short time — mere days — for the gene therapy to do its miraculous work, the NYT reports. Dam's father said his son was picking up traffic sounds with his treated ear, and now its ability to hear is "close to normal."

Two similar studies were done in China recently, with one of them already showing remarkable results. There are also two studies in Europe that are either in progress or planned that will target the otoferlin mutation.

With Dam's newfound hearing, the NYT reports that researchers are going to continue the study and enroll younger patients.

Even though this particular type of gene therapy targets a rare type of mutation in the inner ear, it also opens up the possibility of treating other forms of congenital deafness.

More on gene therapy for deafness: New Genetic Treatment Successfully Lets Deaf Children Hear

https://futurism.com/neoscope/genetic-treatment-deaf-children


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS:
MORE INFO:

https://www.iflscience.com/11-year-old-boy-hears-for-first-time-ever-thanks-to-gene-therapy-breakthrough-72600

1 posted on 01/26/2024 7:47:15 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: joe fonebone; SamiGirl; gitmogrunt; Freee-dame; ROCKLOBSTER; ryderann; Red_Devil 232; ...

PING!....................


2 posted on 01/26/2024 7:47:53 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

This really is a feel good story ...


3 posted on 01/26/2024 7:52:18 PM PST by 11th_VA (Celebrate Climate Change !!!)
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To: Red Badger
DEAFNESS IN 11-YEAR-OLD BOY..."THERE’S NO SOUND I DON’T LIKE."

Obviously, he hasn't heard me sing "When The Levy Breaks" after downing half a bottle of tequila with the roadies for ZZ Top.

I can shut down an open bar at a Sorority house hazing. He'll hear it though, he'll hear it, I promise him that.

4 posted on 01/26/2024 8:01:48 PM PST by End Times Sentinel (In the conflict between the stone and the stream, the stream will always prevail.)
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To: Red Badger
A viral cure for ... wait, I've seen this movie.


5 posted on 01/26/2024 8:28:53 PM PST by conservativeimage (Divorce the Deep State and Reconstruct Civilian Government: https://tasa.americanstatenationals.org)
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To: conservativeimage

Was that Resident Evil or I am Legend?


6 posted on 01/26/2024 8:50:55 PM PST by 31R1O (The people who can control themselves ought to be able to defend themselves from those who can't.)
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To: 31R1O

That’s the beginning of I am Legend.


7 posted on 01/26/2024 8:58:39 PM PST by conservativeimage (Divorce the Deep State and Reconstruct Civilian Government: https://tasa.americanstatenationals.org)
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To: Red Badger

Apparently he hasn’t listened to country and western music yet.


8 posted on 01/26/2024 9:55:34 PM PST by AlaskaErik (There are three kinds of rats: Rats, Damned Rats, and DemocRats.)
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To: Red Badger

Interesting. My friend got cochlear implants at 40. He hated the noise and disabled them... After we taxpayers spent near 1/2 million dollars for them.


9 posted on 01/26/2024 11:39:57 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eye)
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To: End Times Sentinel

When I was in Japan singing in a karaoke, people ran screaming out of the place!


10 posted on 01/27/2024 3:39:45 AM PST by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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