Aissam Dam, an 11-year-old boy, grew up in a world of profound silence. He was born deaf and had by no means heard something. Whereas residing in a poor group in Morocco, he expressed himself with an indication language he invented and had no education.
Final yr, after shifting to Spain, his household took him to a listening to specialist, who made a stunning suggestion: Aissam could be eligible for a scientific trial utilizing gene remedy.
On Oct. 4, Aissam was handled on the Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia, turning into the primary particular person to get gene remedy in the US for congenital deafness. The aim was to offer him with listening to, however the researchers had no concept if the remedy would work or, if it did, how a lot he would hear.
The remedy was successful, introducing a toddler who had identified nothing of sound to a brand new world.
“There’s no sound I don’t like,” Aissam mentioned, with the assistance of interpreters throughout an interview final week. “They’re all good.”
Whereas a whole lot of tens of millions of individuals on this planet reside with listening to loss that’s outlined as disabling, Aissam is amongst these whose deafness is congenital. His is a particularly uncommon type, brought on by a mutation in a single gene, otoferlin. Otoferlin deafness impacts about 200,000 folks worldwide.
The aim of the gene remedy is to switch the mutated otoferlin gene in sufferers’ ears with a practical gene.
Though it’ll take years for medical doctors to enroll many extra sufferers — and youthful ones — to additional take a look at the remedy, researchers mentioned that success for sufferers like Aissam might result in gene therapies that focus on different types of congenital deafness.
It’s a “groundbreaking” research, mentioned Dr. Dylan Okay. Chan, a pediatric otolaryngologist on the College of California, San Francisco, and director of its Youngsters’s Communication Heart; he was not concerned within the trial.
The one through which Aissam participated is supported by Eli Lilly and a small biotechnology agency it owns, Akouos. Investigators hope to ultimately broaden the research to 6 facilities throughout the US.
