Hearing loss is one of the most frequent sensory impairments, affecting more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. Its impact on quality of life and society in general is therefore enormous. Therefore, researchers at the University of Antwerp are conducting a specific hearing loss research project. We spoke with Vincent Van Rompaey, head of the Experimental Laboratory of Translational Neurosciences at the University of Antwerp and ENT specialist at UZA, about his project.
Preventive solutions
“Our research project is intended to explore innovative ways to approach hearing loss and treat it preventively. Up until now, we just let patients with hearing problems come to us and we then evaluate whether surgery or a hearing aid could provide a solution. These people have often already been struggling with their hearing problems for some time, meaning it has already created an impact on their social life and their role in society.”
“We aim to address this problem with gene therapy: by genetic determination we can check in advance whether or not a person is predisposed to hearing loss. This will allow us to work preventively and avoid hearing damage in patients in the future.”
Causes of hearing loss
“Hearing loss actually has many different causes. On the one hand, there can be a genetic disposition, about which we have gathered a great deal of knowledge and identified several diagnoses. This has opened the path towards investigating genetic therapy. On the other hand, hearing loss can be caused by middle ear infections, noise pollution or medication. Old age also has a negative effect on hearing, with the auditory nerve gradually weakening and hair cells potentially failing.”
“Certain medicines are known to potentially cause hearing loss. When starting such medication, we of course inform patients of the potential consequences. It is therefore strongly recommended for patients to be followed up, by means of hearing tests, while being on this medication. Wearing sound protection in loud environments is obviously of the utmost importance as well."
“Screening newborns for hearing problems allows us to immediately anticipate treatment, and thus having a big influence on their speech and language development. Preventive action is the overall message, but it is unfortunately not applied enough to adults. An annual check-up after a certain age is definitely recommended, since too many people tend to carry on with hearing complaints for too long.
Our approach
“Working as an ear-throat-nose specialist at UZA, I see a great deal of patients suffering from hearing problems. Being very familiar with their concerns, I can take these problems to the laboratory of which I am the director and carry out research on hearing loss. We examine the causes, the consequences and how we can address the problem with innovative therapies so as to develop treatments for patients in the future.”
Patient associations
“Our project is under full development and we are working closely with a Flemish-Dutch patient association, called ‘De negende van’ (The Ninth). All these patients suffer from a similar mutation, DFNA9, and are somehow connected to each other, allowing us to go far back in time and evaluate a very diverse group of people.”
“We organise meetings with the patients association to go over the current situation together and to see in which direction they would like the research to go. Currently, we are also investigating the natural evolution of hearing loss in DFNA9 patients in order to be able to determine exactly when a particular treatment might be effective in the future."
“The great thing about this patients association, is that it makes patients realise they are not the only ones suffering from the impairment. They can join forces to help steer our research into the right direction and find concrete ways to treat the condition.”
The importance of funding
“Staff costs for our Hearing Loss project are extremely high and will only continue to rise. Being able to hire more people would obviously enable us to work faster and give feedback more quickly. Donations give an enormous boost to our research, allowing us to proceed (more) quickly."
“Our ultimate goal is to be able to treat people preventively and to make patients’ lives more comfortable. Hearing loss often causes people to lose touch with important aspects of their daily life. This prevents them from fully participating in society, creating a big emotional and financial loss for the people concerned.”