Скачать или смотреть Antibiotics can lead to hearing loss. Perpetual Medical Services CT Scholar, Caitlynn Illingworth

The aminoglycoside problem: Are energy production mechanisms of inner-ear hair cells related to toxicity produced by antibiotics.

Imagine a world where you start a course of antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection and end up with irreversible hearing loss. Unfortunately, for many this turns out to be a reality. Understanding differences in how cells of the inner ear produce energy could lead to the development of drugs which protect against this hearing loss following antibiotic prescriptions.

Normally, cells of the inner ear take sounds and convert it into a message that can be decoded by the brain. This process is what allows us to understand what is happening in the environment around us. However, the rise of antibacterial resistance has resulted in older generations of less-safe antibiotics being prescribed which kill off these cells and result in hearing or balance loss.

Currently, there is no treatment available to reverse this damage, yet it is known that these drugs will target either balance or hearing systems selectively. This collaborative research project aims to confirm whether inner ear hair cells of these regions differ by how they produce energy in order to identify new drug targets. It is believed that these targets could provide a way to develop drugs which can be co-administered with antibiotics to prevent this damage