SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Ting Therapeutics, a privately-held company focused on advancing novel and repurposed molecules to address multiple causes of hearing loss, published new findings relating to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in today’s issue of the prestigious journal Science Advances (Impact Factor of 13.6), in a research paper entitled “In Silico Transcriptome-based Screens Identify Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors as Therapeutics for Noise-induced Hearing Loss”.
The journal also highlighted this paper as its featured article.
Addressing Noise Induced Hearing Loss
As described in the publication, Dr. Jian Zuo, Co-Founder and CEO of Ting Therapeutics, and his colleagues screened a recently developed Connectivity Map (CMap) to identify 22 biological pathways active in the pathophysiology of NIHL. Further research identified 64 drugs that can potentially be used to treat NIHL through these pathways, and early proof-of-concept data was obtained in animal models in vivo. Oral delivery of identified drugs exhibited acceptable inner ear pharmacokinetics in mice and was shown to attenuate EGF/EGRF signaling involved in the development of NIHL. Finally, combination of different drugs achieved synergistic effect. These findings are the subject of recent patent filings by Ting Therapeutics.
This work was supported, in part, by a Department of Defense grant to Ting Therapeutics.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hearing loss affects at least 10% of the world population, amounting to over 700 million people. The major causes include NIHL, pharmaceuticals such as certain chemotherapy and antibiotic agents, and aging. In particular, NIHL represents a major unmet need for which no FDA-approved drugs are available.
Citation:
- Sarath Vijayakumar et al. In silico transcriptome screens identify epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors as therapeutics for noise-induced hearing loss. Sci. Adv.10,eadk2299(2024).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adk2299
About Ting Therapeutics
Founded in 2018, Ting Therapeutics is developing a pipeline of novel and repurposed drug candidates to prevent and treat hearing loss due to a variety of causes, including NIHL and chemotherapy and antibiotic drug-induced hearing loss. The Company believes that repurposing FDA-approved drugs with other indications represents a cost-effective and expeditious approach for drug development, while developing novel molecules allows for the development of molecules with improved clinical properties.
Source: Ting Therapuetics
