Local drug delivery for inner ear therapy

This review of local drug delivery for inner ear therapy covers the topics of: noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL); vibration-induced hearing loss (VHL); cisplatin ototoxicity; aminoglycoside ototoxicity; and mechanical trauma-induced hearing loss that can occur during the process of cochlear implantation. The cellular, biochemical and molecular mechanisms involved in the causation of the hearing losses that result from exposure to these diverse traumas to the cochlea and its auditory sensory epithelium are explored as well as the efficacy of different drug therapies in their ability to either prevent or lessen the damage to the cochlear sensory epithelium and ameliorate the level of hearing loss. This review concludes with a section that explores future strategies for unique methods of drug delivery to the cochlea (e.g. biorelease from hydrogels via the round window membrane) and the development of novel inner ear therapies (e.g. short interfering ribonucleic acids, siRNAs) to conserve hearing against trauma associated losses and/or to restore hearing (e.g. stem cell therapy) following trauma-initiated losses of hair cells and hearing.