Gene therapy for hereditary deafness: progress, achievements and future challenges.

BACKGROUND

Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder, and more than 50% of congenital cases are genetic. For decades, clinical management has relied largely on prosthetic devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, which improve audibility but do not restore native cochlear biology.

AIMS: To review how advanced biological therapies-especially inner-ear gene therapy-have evolved from animal proof-of-concept to first-in-human trials. To summarize the progression of therapeutic strategies (gene replacement, antisense oligonucleotides, genome/RNA editing) and the technological hurdles that had to be cleared.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

We surveyed preclinical studies in rodents and non-human primates and analyzed advances in delivery vectors high-efficiency AAVs for various inner-ear cell types, and surgical administration routes validated in adult and primate models. We also review published clinical data from AAV-mediated OTOF gene therapy trials.

RESULTS

Highly efficient viral vectors can now transduce multiple cell types in the cochlea. Safe, increasingly standardized surgical routes have been established in the primate inner ears. Novel platforms for dominant mutations and oversized genes are maturing. Critically, AAV-OTOF gene therapy has restored hearing in congenitally deaf children with DFNB9.

CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: Inner-ear gene therapy has moved from an experimental concept to a clinically validated treatment. AAV-OTOF success opens the door to extending gene therapy to a broad spectrum of auditory and vestibular disorders, heralding a new era of restorative medicine for deafness.