Researchers find key protein helps people hear

Researchers find key protein helps people hear

• A protein in the inner ear helps people differentiate between sounds and understand speech, French researchers reported on Wednesday in a finding that could help treat the hard of hearing.
  
  The study also helps explain why some people have difficulty hearing in crowded restaurants or other noisy places, said Paul Avan, a researcher at the University of Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
  
  "This won't help cure deafness but will help diagnose why some people have hearing problems, especially in noisy places," Avan, who worked on the study, said in a telephone interview.
  
  Scientists often study mice because of the biological similarities between the animals and humans.
  
  The researchers showed how a protein called stereocilin -not the ion channels -- was keeping sensory cells intact and allowing the inner ear to properly distort sounds, Avan said.
  
  Mice without stereocilin did not hear properly even when their ion channels worked, Avan and colleagues reported in the journal Nature.
  
  The findings could help doctors diagnose more subtle hearing problems and fit certain people with special hearing aids that eliminate noise coming from certain directions, Avan said.
  
  "Until now it was thought that if the ion channels worked everything would be okay," Avan said. "We show that this is not the case. Sensitivity will be good but that does nothing if you don't understand anything if it is noisy around you."