By Anthony T. Cacace, Stephanie M. Curley, James Castracane, Magnus Bergkvist, Aaron K. Apawu, and Avril-Genene Holt
This article is a part of the September/October 2018, Volume 30, Number 5, Audiology Today issue.
Tinnitus—defined as the perception of sound in the absence of overt acoustic stimulation—is an enigmatic condition that challenges the treatment acumen and management resources of hearing professionals worldwide. The condition represents a theraputic conundrum for clinicians because there is no universal treatment and no known cure.
Establishing a cure or an effective treatment would be analogous to finding the Holy Grail. If discovered, a cure would have immediate impact and desirable consequences, such as permitting a sustained venture into a peaceful and quiet life, allowing the existence—or resumption—of a productive career, and most important, would contribute to improving an overall quality of life.
Of the many different treatment options available for tinnitus suppression (cognitive/behavioral and/or retraining therapies; acoustic, magnetic, and electrical neuromodulatory strategies; pharmacological interventions), we will focus on a pharmacological approach coupled with a unique drug-delivery platform. We followed this path because many pharmaceutical options available in the marketplace have a strong theoretical basis to be successful, with the main limitation being the lack of specificity in reaching targets within the brain at high enough concentrations to be efficacious. At the same time, there must be minimal or no adverse side effects on normal tissue or on cognition, and limited or no impact on other psychological, social, emotional, or biological processes that would negatively affect activities of daily living.
Approach and Collaborations
Herein, we provide the background and theorectical basis for a novel drug-delivery platform that combines nanotechnology, molecular biology, molecular imaging, and pharma as a way to help solve treatment dilemmas associated with tinnitus abatement.
The nanoscience collaboration is channeled through the State University of New York (SUNY) Polytechnic Institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Albany. Dr. James Castracane, professor and head of the Nanobioscience Constellation, and colleagues Drs. Magnus Bergkvist and Stephanie Curley are the lead scientists and collaborators in this area. The SUNY Polytechnic Institute CNSE is the largest academic institution in the world dedicated to nanotechnology education, fundamental nanoscience research, nanoengineering, nanobioscience, and nanoeconomics and, therefore, is a logical partner in this endeavor. The state-of-the-art facilities, intellectual resources, and the ability to fabricate nanoparticle constructs facilitated the experimental protocols used herein (FIGURE 1).
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