Parham Kourosh
Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, UCONN Health, Farmington, CT, United States.
Med Hypotheses. 2015 Aug;85(2):130-3. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2015.04.015. Epub 2015 Apr 20.
Acquired sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus can come about through various etiologies such as exposure to excessively loud noise or drugs with ototoxic properties. As such, acquired hearing loss is a common source of morbidity which deleteriously affects the ability to communicate. At present our ability to detect acquired hearing loss and tinnitus at its earliest stages is limited and there are no adjuncts to audiometric evaluation. The earliest cellular targets of noise and ototoxins in the cochlea are the outer hair cells (OHC). I hypothesize that serum assays of OHC specific protein, prestin, will allow detection and quantification of OHC damage before audiometric testing can identify presence of hearing loss. At present, there are no data available to evaluate this hypothesis, but initial evaluation can readily be carried out using existing experimental animal models of ototoxicity and noise-induced hearing loss. Early detection of OHC damage is critical to adoption of measures aimed at ameliorating hearing loss and tinnitus, thus reducing permanent deficits and disability.
获得性感音神经性听力损失和耳鸣可由多种病因引起，如暴露于过大噪音或具有耳毒性的药物。因此，获得性听力损失是一种常见的发病原因，会对沟通能力产生有害影响。目前，我们在最早阶段检测获得性听力损失和耳鸣的能力有限，并且听力测试评估没有辅助手段。耳蜗中噪音和耳毒素最早的细胞靶点是外毛细胞（OHC）。我假设，通过检测血清中OHC特异性蛋白—— prestin，将能够在听力测试确定听力损失存在之前检测并量化OHC损伤。目前，尚无数据可用于评估这一假设，但可以利用现有的耳毒性和噪声性听力损失实验动物模型轻松进行初步评估。早期检测OHC损伤对于采取旨在改善听力损失和耳鸣的措施至关重要，从而减少永久性缺陷和残疾。
