The search for C. elegans has led scientists at Oregon Health & Science University in America to reveal for the first time, in near-atomic detail, the structure of the main part of the inner ear responsible for hearing.
“This is the last sensory system in which the underlying molecular mechanism remains unknown, and the molecular mechanism that carries out this amazing process has not been resolved for decades,” says Eric Guo, a researcher at the university’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Oregon.
Researchers made the discovery through years of painstaking research to find the process that allows the inner ear to convert vibrations into sound, known as the sensory-mechanical transmission complex.
The study, which revealed the structure responsible for this through electron microscopy, was published yesterday in the journal “Nature”, and the results could point the way towards developing new treatments for hearing loss, which affects more than 460 million people all together. around the world
This discovery reveals the structure of the inner ear complex, which converts vibrations into electrical impulses that the brain translates as sound, a process known as sensory-mechanical transduction, which is responsible for the sense of balance and sound, and the proteins that compose it. The mechanosensory transduction complex is responsible for this.
The scientists took advantage of the fact that the roundworm C. elegans harbors a mechanosensory complex very similar to that of humans, and were able to decipher its basic structure.
Through meticulous cultivation and isolation techniques involving 60 million worms over the course of nearly five years, researchers have been able to improve the ways the worms grow and isolate their protein.
“According to our findings, if a mutation causes a conduction channel defect that causes hearing loss, it may be possible to design a molecule that rescues the defect, or it may mean that we can strengthen interactions that were made previously,” Eric Eric. Guo, the study’s lead author, said in a report posted on the University of Oregon’s official website. weaken it.”
Hearing loss can be inherited through genetic mutations that alter the proteins that make up the SMT complex, or it can be caused by damage from constant exposure to loud noise, and either way, the researchers’ discovery offers a solution.