Hearing loss: The final frontier of pharmacology

Despite a prevalence greater than cancer or diabetes, there are no currently approved drugs for the treatment of hearing loss. Research over the past two decades has led to a vastly improved understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the cochlea that lead to hearing deficits and the advent of novel strategies to combat them. Combined with innovative methods that enable local drug delivery to the inner ear, these insights have paved the way for promising therapies that are now under clinical investigation. In this review, we will outline this renaissance of cochlear biology and drug development, focusing on noise, age-related, and chemotherapy-induced hearing dysfunction.

Automated summary

Despite the high prevalence of hearing loss, there are currently no approved drugs for its treatment. However, research in the past two decades has greatly improved our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the cochlea and led to the development of innovative strategies. These advancements, along with local drug delivery methods, have paved the way for promising therapies that are now being investigated in clinical trials.