NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In a promising step against a genetic disease
that causes deafness and gradual loss of vision, scientists have
partly restored hearing with a single injection to young mice.
Experts praised the study on Usher syndrome, published online
last week by the journal Nature Medicine, but the results are
still a long way from preventing the disease. Children with
Usher - an estimated one in 6,000 to 7,500 babies worldwide -
are born deaf. The visual component of the disease, called
retinitis pigmentosa, often starts in childhood, but severe
problems are more likely in adolescence and young adulthood.
About half of adults with Usher can still read a newspaper into
their 50s. Some groups, such as Louisiana's Cajuns and Canada's
Acadians, have an unusually high prevalence of the disease. In
the study, Michelle Hastings of Chicago Medical School and
Jennifer Lentz of the Louisiana State University Health Science
Center found that one injection allowed affected mice to hear
for months. The injection, or