MiRNA cochlear and blood biomarkers of cochlear inflammation
Principle Investigator: Prof. Peter Thorne (University of Auckland). Associate Investigators: A/P Srdjan Vlajkovic, Dr Ravi Telang, Prof. Mike Dragunow (University of Auckland), Dr Phil Bird (University of Otago)
When our hearing organ, the cochlea, is damaged, e.g. from noise exposure, cancer drugs, insertion of cochlear implants, inflammatory processes are initiated that may give rise to further injury of the cochlear tissue and lead to greater hearing loss. However, these processes are poorly understood in humans due to an inability to access the cochlear tissue which is encased in bone.
Advances in treatments would be accelerated if biomarkers for cochlear inflammation could be identified in the blood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small molecules that are receiving considerable interest internationally as they regulate many different processes in the body. miRNAs appear to be elevated in plasma after noise exposure or tinnitus in humans and may provide this biomarker for cochlear injury and inflammation.
This project aims to identify changes in expression of specific inflammatory mediating miRNA in cochlear tissues at different stages of inflammation and see if they correlate with blood miRNA levels.