SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Ting Therapeutics, a privately-held company focused on advancing novel and repurposed molecules to address multiple causes of hearing loss, has been awarded a NIH SBIR phase II grant related to antibiotics-induced hearing loss. This award is in part based on a new publication in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Science Translational Medicine (Impact Factor of 19.3).
As described in the publication, Dr. Jian Zuo, Co-Founder and CEO of Ting Therapeutics, and his colleagues characterized a drug, piplartine (TT003), that protects against antibiotic-induced hearing loss in zebrafish and mice as early proof-of-concept data.
Further research provides TT003’s in vivo mechanisms of action. These findings are the subject of recent patent filings by Ting Therapeutics.
Addressing Antibiotic-Induced Hearing Loss
This work was supported, in part, by a NIH SBIR phase I grant to Ting Therapeutics, which has been now competitively extended to a NIH phase II grant award to develop TT003 as a safe and effective drug for treatment and prevention of antibiotics-induced hearing loss.
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 pharmaceuticals such as certain antibiotic and chemotherapy agents, noise exposure, and aging.
Antibiotic-induced hearing loss is a significant unmet need, with no FDA-approved drugs currently available to address it. Antibiotics are essential for treating serious, life-threatening bacterial infections, such as those in Cystic Fibrosis patients. However, these treatments can cause permanent hearing loss in up to 90% of patients, severely impacting their quality of life, ability to secure and retain jobs, and maintain career trajectories, while also imposing a substantial socio-economic burden due to lifelong hearing loss.
Reference:
- Marisa Zallocchi et al., Piplartine attenuates aminoglycoside-induced TRPV1 activity and protects from hearing loss in mice. Sci. Transl. Med. 16,eadn2140(2024). DOI:10.1126/scitranslmed.adn2140
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 chemotherapy and antibiotic drugs, noise, and age. 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 Therapeutics
