Hearing Loss: Molecular Biological Insights

Dear Colleagues,

Disabling hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder, affecting over 5% of the world’s population and presenting alarmingly rising incidence rates. Obstacles to the development of therapeutics to treat these patients arise from the location of the cochlear tissue and the complexity that underlies the auditory function, which is regulated by a large number of genes and molecular pathways and is under the influence of environmental factors. These all act in concert to modify the severity and onset of disease; hearing problems may become apparent long after the harmful events have taken place, which further hinders the identification of the causing agents and prevents any efficacious treatment. Recent advancements in high-throughput screening approaches and single-cell transcriptomics, the development of novel tools to achieve the delivery of molecules into the inner ear, and the generation of new animal and human models of disease will all contribute to the identification of the molecular mechanisms leading to auditory disability and the elucidation of molecular targets for therapeutic strategies.

I am delighted to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue launched by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences on “Hearing Loss: Molecular Biological Insights”. The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a meeting point where scientists in the field of hearing may bring together their most recent discoveries on the molecular mechanisms leading to hearing disability as well as report on the latest advancements in molecular biology-based diagnostics and therapeutics for hearing loss. This Special Issue should help us gain an overview of the work that is currently being conducted to decipher the molecular basis of hearing and the impressive achievements that are already being reached, as well as spark the debate on the most promising leads for the development of novel therapies against this devastating disorder.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Genetic and molecular bases of hearing loss;
• Epigenetics of hearing loss;
• Molecular biological techniques to study the structure and function of the auditory organ;
• Multi-omic approaches for the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying hearing loss;
• Molecular biology of inner ear development;
• Animal models and human organoid-based models to study the molecular biology of inner ear development and function;
• Molecular mechanisms involved in age-related or drug-induced hearing loss;
• Application of CRISPR/Cas and other molecular biology techniques to analyze the effect of altering molecular processes on inner ear development and function;
• Diagnostic markers of hearing dysfunction;
• Molecular pathways associated with otoprotection or inner ear cell regeneration;
• Intracochlear delivery of molecular agents as a possible therapy against hearing loss.

I am looking forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Dr. María Beatriz Durán-Alonso
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• genetics
• microRNA
• epigenetics
• CRISPR
• multi-omics
• presbycusis
• ototoxicity
• development