From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-388628-556597
IOWA CITY, Iowa (UPI) -- U.S., French and German researchers link a
form of inherited hearing loss to a mutation on gene SLC17A8.
Researchers from France's Universite Montpellier, Inserm U513 in
Paris, Germany 's University of Goettingen Medical School joined with
U.S. researchers at the University of Iowa and University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor suggest the mutation affects a protein -- VGKUT3 -- that
affects a neurotransmitter allowing inner hair cells of the ear to
send signals to the auditory nerve.
The mutation is linked to an inherited loss of ability to hear
high-frequency sounds -- label DFNA25 by the researchers -- that
closely resembles hearing loss common in people as they age -- known
as presbycusis. In this inherited form, the loss often happens at
earlier age.
"Some people with the mutation have hearing loss in their 40s of the
kind we normally see in people a decade or more older," Dr. Marci
Lesperance of the University of Michigan said in a statement. "Often,
identifying a gene in individuals who have early onset of a disorder
will help explain why the disorder occurs in the general population."
The study is published in the American Journal of Hearing Genetics.