(DailyAnswer.org) – Experimental gene therapy has allowed an 11-year-old boy to hear for the first time. Aissam Dam, a Moroccan native, was born deaf and grew up in a village relying on sign language before moving to Spain in 2023. When taken to a hearing specialist he was recommended gene therapy, and on October 4th, 2023 Dam received treatment at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. This would make him the first person to receive gene therapy for congenital deafness in the United States. The therapy was not without risk and uncertainty, as researchers were unsure about how much he would be able to hear or if he would be able to hear at all after the treatment.
The full risks of gene therapy are still unknown; possible risks include cancer, allergic reactions, and damage to organs and tissues if an injection is required. However, recent progress in research has made genetic therapy safer and resulted in several approvals by the FDA for treatment in the US. There are also ethical concerns about the practice potentially giving rise to new forms of eugenics, with many arguing that those who would benefit the most from the treatment would not be able to access it and that those in a position to receive it would form a class defined by the quality of their altered genomes. The unpredictable nature of germline gene therapy that would alter offspring with unknown side effects is a particular cause for concern.
Dam was born deaf in both ears and now only has mild to moderate hearing loss in the ear that was treated. A total of five hospitals are testing the treatment and the breakthrough may open doors to treatments for the other 150 genes that cause deafness. The therapy tested attempts to replace the mutated otoferlin gene, the cause of Dam’s very rare form of congenital deafness, with a functional gene. Dam said after the successful treatment that there was no sound that he did not like, and though signing up and treatment of further patients is years down the line, the treatment has been hailed as “groundbreaking” by pediatric otolaryngologist Dr. Dylan K. Chan from the University of California, who was not involved with the trial.
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