Zebrafish May Help Solve Ringing In Veterans’ Ears
Posted by Callier Library on May 1, 2008
The research itself is challenging because Moore can’t ask mice and rats if their ears are ringing. Now, he’s working with zebrafish (yes, they do have ears, which are remarkably similar to humans’ ears.) He’s been able to cause ringing in their ears — he thinks — by exposing them to certain drugs and tracking their erratic swimming on video. Moore then looks at the cells in their ears to see if the electrical firing has increased, an early sign of damage and tinnitus. His early findings show an increased firing.
Then Moore attempts to block this effect with drugs to return the cells to their normal activity. In preliminary research, it appears the drugs he has tested do slow down the increased electrical firing or tinnitus-like behavior of the hair cells in the ear.
Moore is beginning to meet with doctors to discuss launching a clinical trial to test these drugs for patients with tinnitus.
