A single injection can now restore hearing in deaf children
A single dose of genetic code can now bypass the need for surgical implants, allowing children born into total silence to hear the sound of a human voice.
Deep inside the inner ear, a protein called otoferlin acts like a biological gatekeeper, timing the release of chemical signals that tell the brain it has heard a sound. For about 1 in 2,000 children born with a specific genetic mutation, this gatekeeper is missing, leaving the ear physically perfect but the brain completely deaf. While traditional medicine relies on mechanical cochlear implants, a landmark trial that began in China in 2020 used a modified, harmless virus to deliver a functional copy of the missing gene directly into the ear.
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