Redesigned aminoglycoside may eliminate risk of hearing loss

摘要

Researchers have diminished the toxicity of the aminoglycoside sisomicin which can cause hearing damage or loss — by altering its molecular structure. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation on 2 January 2015. For several decades, aminoglycosides have been a mainstay in the treatment of pneumonia, peritonitis, sepsis, genitourinary tract infection and other diseases. However, aminoglycosides-which include streptomycin, kanamycin, tobramycin, gentamicin and neomycin-can lead to the death of cochlear hair cells and result in permanent hearing impairment in about 20% of treated patients tested using conventional audiometry, and in nearly half of patients whose higher frequency hearing was examined. "We thought, if we could make a simple change to these drugs, that we might reduce or eliminate the toxicity while maintaining the drugs' effectiveness," says Alan Cheng, associate professor of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, and one of the senior authors of the study.