In , they connected with SPARK , a program at Stanford that assists scientists in drug development and in moving their discoveries from the lab into patient care. SPARK helped them create a team capable of designing a new drug, consisting of chemists, microbiologists, crystallographers, FDA advisers and more.
They recruited chemists like Robert Greenhouse , PhD, adjunct professor for otolaryngology, to help figure out how to change the shape of the compound. Ludmila Alexandrova , a research associate at Stanford, developed a mass spectroscopy assay for aminoglycoside detection. More recently, the team has worked with crystallographer Hasan DeMirci , PhD, a research associate at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, whose expertise has helped reveal the intricacies of how aminoglycosides interact with ribosomes, the site of protein synthesis in the cells of bacteria.
So far, they have completed two rounds of testing on 18 new antibiotic compounds. Of the 18 versions, three successful candidates have emerged for further study. Still, the three drug candidates are not as effective at killing off a wide range of bacteria as the researchers need for a final product, Ricci says. The team is preparing for a third round of compound testing. To reach the level where the drugs could be tested in humans, they plan to first move testing into guinea pigs, a larger animal model that more closely resembles humans.
Tracie White is a science writer in the Office of Communications. Email her at tracie. A toxic lifesaver, reconstructed. Additional Reading. Hearing things Solving the mystery of why some people can hear their eyeballs move. Listen up The stethoscope at Visionary Pushing the boundaries of biology and technology to help people regain or preserve their sight.
Gentamicin and other aminoglycosides are frequently used in neonatal intensive care units, when infections can prove fatal before lab results determining the bacteria that is to blame come back, but there is an inherent danger in their use: infants who receive these antibiotics are six times more likely to develop a hearing impairment compared to babies with healthy hearing. In order to understand the link between antibiotics and hearing loss, Steyger and his colleagues turned to a group of test subjects that have been at the forefront of a number of breakthroughs in the field of medicine: mice.
After the rodents were administered gentamicin, researchers found that inflammation associated with infection caused the ion channels in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear to become more absorbent to the antibiotics, allowing more of the drug to permeate the cochlea and increasing sensitivity to its toxic effects. One protein in particular — TRPV1 — was found to have an effect on ion channels and helped gentamicin enter the sensory cells, even when inflammation was occurring.
Mice that were bred without the TRPV1 protein were protected against hearing loss despite the presence of body-wide inflammation. However, in some cases aminoglycosides are the only option. Health care providers should monitor these patients carefully for signs of hearing loss; solutions such as auditory rehabilitation can improve their chances of long-term recovery. In addition, he is pushing for new techniques that would enable quicker identification of bacteria that are responsible for infection, decreasing the reliance on broad-spectrum antibiotics.
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Top of the page. Medicines That Cause Hearing Loss. Topic Overview Medicines that damage the ear and cause hearing loss are known as ototoxic medicines. Commonly used medicines that may cause hearing loss include: Aspirin, when large doses 8 to 12 pills a day are taken.
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