Preventing noise-related hearing loss from a loud concert, a banging jackhammer or a rifle blast could be as simple as managing levels of zinc within the inner ear, a new study reports. Such hearing loss stems from cellular damage associated with an excess of free-floating zinc in the inner ear, researchers say. Lab mouse experiments showed drugs that soak up the excess zinc can help restore lost hearing or even protect the ear against loud noises. “Noise-induced hearing loss impairs millions of lives but, because the biology of hearing loss is not fully understood, preventing hearing loss has been an ongoing challenge,” said senior researcher Thanos Tzounopoulos, director of the Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Zinc is a mineral essential to proper cellular function and hearing, researchers said in background notes. But they found that inner ear levels of zinc spike hours after mice are exposed to loud noise. This excess zinc causes cell damage and disrupts normal cell-to-cell communication, resulting in temporary and sometimes permanent hearing loss. Mice treated with a slow-releasing compound that trapped excess free zinc were less prone to hearing loss, and were protected from noise-induced damage, researchers said in a university news release. Researchers are developing a simple, over-the-counter medication that a person could take to protect their ears from loud noise prior…  read on >  read on >

Is ‘practice makes perfect’ true for the male erection, too? That’s the suggestion from a Swedish study involving amorous male mice. It found that getting erections regularly was important to the rodents’ overall erectile function. The key seemed to lie in connective tissue cells called fibroblasts. These cells have long been known to populate penile tissue, but their role has remained unclear, explained researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “Fibroblasts are the most abundant cells in the penis of both mice and humans, but they have been neglected in research,” said study lead author Eduardo Guimaraes, a researcher at the department of cell and molecular biology at Karolinska. “Now we can show, using a very precise method called optogenetics, that they have a very important role in regulating blood flow in the penis, which is what makes the penis erect,” he said in an institute news release. The findings were published Feb. 8 in the journal Science. Of course, many studies conducted in mice don’t translate to humans. But the Swedish team said that — size aside — the penises of mice and men aren’t dissimilar. “The basic mechanisms of erection are very similar in all mammals regarding anatomy, cell structure and so on,” principal investigator Christian Göritz explained. “However, there is one difference between humans and most mammals — they have a bone…  read on >  read on >

America’s most popular cold medications contain a nasal decongestant that doesn’t work, creating a knotty dilemma for regulators, a new study reports. Cold remedies containing phenylephrine remain consumers’ most popular choice, despite decades of concern that the decongestant simply isn’t effective, researchers say. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to pull phenylephrine from store shelves, after a key advisory panel voted unanimously in September 2023 that the drug does nothing to clear stuffy noses. But such a move could create a wave of supply chain disturbances that would leave sick consumers without ready over-the-counter options, researchers report Feb. 8 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Phenylephrine tends to be combined with other drugs that are effective — analgesics, cough suppressants and antihistamines — and sold as a multi-symptom product, researchers said. Brands include Dayquil, Sinex, Mucinex and Benadryl. The only other nasal decongestant approved by the FDA, pseudoephedrine, has become much more tightly regulated because it can be used to make methamphetamine. Products containing pseudoephedrine can only be purchased by going to a pharmacy counter and handing over a driver’s license, thanks to a 2005 law aimed at combatting illicit meth. As a result, phenylephrine products have outpaced pseudoephedrine as consumers’ cold remedy of choice, researchers said. Between 2012 and 2021, consumers bought 19.8 billion units of phenylephrine products, compared…  read on >  read on >

Could drugs that give a boost to men’s sexual performance help them stave off Alzheimer’s disease? That’s the main finding from a study suggesting that erectile dysfunction meds like Cialis, Levitra and Viagra might lower the odds for the memory-robbing illness. The study wasn’t designed to prove cause-and-effect, cautioned British researchers at University College London. “More research is needed to confirm these findings, learn more about the potential benefits and mechanisms of these drugs and look into the optimal dosage,” explained study co-author Ruth Brauer, a lecturer in pharmacoepidemiology and medication safety at the university. She also believes that, “a randomized, controlled trial with both male and female participants is warranted to determine whether these findings would apply to women as well.” The findings were published Feb. 7 in the journal Neurology. Erectile dysfunction medications work by dilating blood vessels and increasing blood flow. The new study involved almost 270,000 men, averaging 59 years of age, who had all been newly diagnosed with erectile dysfunction (ED). A little more than half of them were prescribed an ED drug. None of the men had any cognitive or memory issues when they entered the study. Over five years of follow-up, 1,119 of the men were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Bauer’s team reported that men who were taking an ED drug had an 18% lower odds of developing…  read on >  read on >

No one’s brain is as sharp at 60 as it was at 20. However, new research supports the notion that folk’s brains can make subtle adjustments with age to compensate for that decline. A team of British researchers has found more evidence that as the mind ages, it sometimes recruits help from certain brain regions to make up for deficits elsewhere. This does not happen for everyone equally, stressed study lead author Dr. Ethan Knights. Still, “now that we’ve seen this compensation happening, we can start to ask questions about why it happens for some older people, but not others, and in some tasks, but not others,” said Knights, who works in the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University. “Is there something special about these people — their education or lifestyle, for example — and if so, is there a way we can intervene to help others see similar benefits?,” Knights said in a university news release. His team published its findings Feb. 6 in the journal eLife. Working with researchers at the University of Sussex, Knights’ group sought to elucidate the brain’s means of coping with age. “Our ability to solve abstract problems is a sign of so-called ‘fluid intelligence,’ but as we get older, this ability begins to show significant decline,” noted senior study author Dr. Kamen Tsvetanov.…  read on >  read on >