The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) recently celebrated a milestone following a successful gene therapy that allowed an 11-year-old Moroccan deaf boy to hear for the first time in his life.
Eagle News said on Wednesday the hospital broke the news in a statement, noting that 11-year-old Aissam Dam was born “profoundly deaf” due to a “highly rare abnormality in a single gene.”
Physicians at the hospital carried out a surgical procedure on the patient in October last year, which involved lifting his eardrum partly.
Following the surgery, they injected a harmless virus, which had been modified to transport working copies of the otoferlin gene into the internal fluid of his cochlear.
This resulted in the activation of hair cells, enabling the production of the previously missing protein and correctly functioning.
Physicians at the hospital celebrated the news, emphasizing that this has instilled hope for similar cases.
“Gene therapy for hearing loss is something that we physicians and scientists in the world of hearing loss have been working toward for over 20 years, and it is finally here,” surgeon John Germiller said.
Germiller, the director of clinical research for CHOP’s otolaryngology division, added that the therapy performed on the Moroccan boy was to correct an abnormality in one very rare gene.
These studies “may open the door for future use for some of the over 150 other genes that cause childhood hearing loss,” he added.
Four months following the start of the treatment in one ear, the Moroccan boy’s hearing has improved.
The clinic said that they believe the treatment is working, given the fact that Aissan now has only mild to moderate hearing loss, and that he is “hearing for the first time in his life.”
The New York Times said that the 11-year-old was born deaf in Morocco. “He expressed himself with sign language and he invented and had no schooling,” the news outlet added.
In 2023, Aissam moved to Spain, where his family took him to a hearing specialist.
The specialist “made a surprising suggestion” Aissam might be eligible for a clinical trial using gene therapy,” the New York wrote.
