Testing a generic diuretic to improve drug delivery to the inner ear in Meniere’s disease

Principal Investigator: Dr. Daniel Brown

Disease: Meniere’s disease

Research Description: Meniere’s disease (MD) is a hearing and balance disorder with no known cause, although MD is believed to involve dysfunction of a structure in the inner ear called the endolymphatic sac (ES), located deep in the skull. While steroids injected into the middle ear is a current method used to treat MD, the steroids do not penetrate deep into the inner ear or reach the ES, which may limit the success of this treatment. Interestingly, an old therapy for MD involves ingesting a diuretic such as glycerol, and preliminary data suggests that glycerol may aid steroid absorption into the ES. This phenomenon offers the potential for therapeutic drugs to be better absorbed into the ES if delivered with oral glycerol. Dr. Brown’s team will use an animal model to validate and optimize a method for delivering steroids, in combination with glycerol, to the ES. Results from this study could be used as proof of concept for a new technique to deliver steroids to the inner ear more effectively, leading to a new avenue of research and possibly treatment.

Funding Partners: Becky and Lester Knight

CWR funding role: Primary funder