Researchers have identified a novel genetic mutation responsible for deafness and hearing loss associated with Usher syndrome type 1.

Partners in the study included the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Kentucky.
Usher syndrome is a genetic defect that causes deafness, night-blindness and a loss of peripheral vision through the progressive degeneration of the retina.
"In this study, researchers were able to pinpoint the gene which caused deafness in Usher syndrome type 1 as well as deafness that is not associated with the syndrome through the genetic analysis of 57 humans from Pakistan and Turkey," says Zubair Ahmed, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology who conducts research at Cincinnati Children's and is the lead investigator on this study.
Ahmed says that a protein, called CIB2, which binds to calcium within a cell, is associated with deafness in Usher syndrome type 1 and non-syndromic hearing loss.
"To date, mutations affecting CIB2 are the most common and prevalent genetic cause of non-syndromic hearing loss in Pakistan," he says. "However, we have also found another mutation of the protein that contributes to deafness in Turkish populations.
Advertisement
Researchers found that CIB2 staining is often brighter at shorter row stereocilia tips than the neighboring stereocilia of a longer row, where it may be involved in calcium signaling that regulates mechano-electrical transduction, a process by which the ear converts mechanical energy—or energy of motion—into a form of energy that the brain can recognize as sound.
Advertisement
Source-Eurekalert