Gene therapy has restored hearing for up to 18 months in mice that were born deaf.

The animals are missing the gene that encodes the protein VGLUT3. Lack of VGLUT3 renders inner hair cells of the ear's cochlea incapable of sending electrical signals to the brain. Lawrence Lustig at the University of California, San Francisco, and his team used a virus to deliver the Vglut3 gene into the cochleas of these mice. After one week, the researchers detected auditory responses in the creatures' brains, and within two weeks, the animals showed an increased startle response to sound.

The results could bode well for humans, the researchers suggest, because VGLUT3 is also associated with a rare form of human deafness.

Neuron 75, 283–293 (2012) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.05.019