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Genetic hearing loss may be reversible without gene therapy

02-22-2007 · EurekAlert!

A large proportion of genetically caused deafness in humans may be reversible by compensating for a missing protein. Researchers have found that in mice, increasing the amount of the protein connexin26 in the ear's cochlea compensates for an absence of another protein, connexin30. The findings come 10 years after scientists first discovered that connexin26 mutations cause much of the deafness diagnosed at birth.

Keywords: genetic, hearing, loss, reversible, gene, therapy

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For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. 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