Studies have identified the cause of hearing loss caused by antibiotics

some life-saving antibiotics can cause hearing loss, and now people may know why. A study in mice showed that this was entirely due to the body's response to infection. This makes antibiotics called amino glycosides more likely to penetrate the ion channels in the inner ear's sensory hair cells, increasing the cell's sensitivity to drug toxicity. The results were published in Scientific Progress.
amino glycoside antibiotics, such as Gythromycin, are popular because they work on many bacteria and are less effective than most modern narrow-spectrum antibiotics. They are also sometimes used to treat microorganisms that are resistant to other antibiotics.
", which makes amino glycosides useful in treating unidentified infections of microorganisms. Peter Steyger of Creedon University in Nebraska said.
, these drugs are particularly useful for treating neonatal infections, which can be fatal in one to two days, and one or two days is too hasty to reveal pathogenic microorganisms.
, however, the researchers know that amino glycoside drugs such as Gythromycin are associated with hearing loss. In neonatal intensive care units, babies who use amino glycoside drugs have at least six times the rate of hearing loss in normal full-month infants.
to better understand why these drugs are associated with hearing loss, Steyger and colleagues tested the effects of Gyethromycin on hearing in mice.
they found that infection and inflammation make it easier for drugs to penetrate the ion channels in sensory hair cells, causing sensitive cells in the inner cochlea to absorb more drugs. This increases the toxic effects of the drug on cells.
Steyger found that TRPV1, a protein that is particularly involved in ion channels, promotes the entry of gythromycin into hair cells in the presence of inflammation or immune response. Instead, they bred mice without TRPV1 to avoid hearing loss caused by gynatomycin, even in the case of systemic inflammation. (Source: Xu Xu, China Science Daily)
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