Evaluation of biomarkers connecting the hearing loss and dementia using highly social primate model

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21357
• Project/Area Number (Other): 18H06265 (2018)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2019); Single-year Grants (2018)
• Review Section: 0906:Surgery related to the biological and sensory functions and related fields
• Research Institution: Jikei University School of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Kurihara Sho 東京慈恵会医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (90826926)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 難聴 / 認知機能 / バイオマーカー / 霊長類

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Hearing loss is known to be one of the greatest risks of dementia, but its pathology is unclear. We hypothesized the existence of biomarkers connecting them, and for revealing the biomarker, a small non-human primate, common marmoset, is considered to be an attractive animal model to evaluate the effect of hearing loss on individuals. We have succeeded in developing the noise induced hearing loss model with common marmosets, and it provides comparable parameters evaluated before and after the onset of hearing loss in the same individual. By various analyses, it was confirmed that the parameters related to the stress response and the autonomic nervous system could be the good candidate. We measured the candidate parameters with hearing loss model and found that some parameters significantly changed before and after the onset of hearing loss.

Free Research Field

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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

申請者らは「難聴」が患者に及ぼす影響を明らかにすることを目標に、霊長類モデルを用いた難聴研究のプラットフォーム構築に取り組んできた。近年、認知症との関連も指摘されている「難聴」を、多角的・経時的に解析するためには、高い社会性と音声コミュニケーションを有する霊長類モデルは強力なツールとなり得る。難聴により各個体に表れるコミュニケーション障害やストレス反応を経時的に明らかにすることで、難聴への適正な治療介入時期の決定や、認知症への進展の防止策を検証可能となる。