A new oral otoprotective agent. Part 1: Electrophysiology data from protection against noise-induced hearing loss.
BACKGROUND
Data from animal studies show that antioxidants can compensate against noise-induced stress and sensory hair cell death. The aim of this study was to evaluate the otoprotection efficacy of various versions of orally administered Acuval 400 against noise damage in a rat animal model.


METHODS
Fifty-five Sprague Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups: A) noise-exposed animals; B) animals exposed to noise and treated with the Acuval; C) animals exposed to noise and treated with a combination of Coenzyme Q10 and Acuval; D) animals treated only with Acuval and Coenzyme Q10 and with no exposure to noise. All solutions were administered orally 5 times: 24 and 2 hrs prior to noise exposure, and then daily for 3 days. The auditory function was assessed by measuring auditory brainstem responses (ABR) in the range from 2 to 32 kHz at times =1, 7, 14 and 21 days after noise exposure.


RESULTS
At low frequencies (click and 4 kHz) animals from both A and B groups showed significant threshold shifts in the majority of the tested frequencies and tested times. For the same frequencies, animals from group C presented threshold levels similar to those from group D. At frequencies ≥ 8 kHz the protective performance of the 2 Acuval groups is more clearly distinguished from the noise group A. At 32 kHz the 2 Acuval groups perform equally well in terms of otoprotection. Animals in Group D did not show any significant differences in the hearing threshold during the experiment.


CONCLUSIONS
The data of this study suggest that a solution containing Coenzyme Q10 and Acuval 400, administered orally, protects from noise-induced hearing loss.
Center of Bioacoustics, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Vincenza
V
Cascella
Pietro
P
Giordano
Stavros
S
Hatzopoulos
Joseph
J
Petruccelli
Silvano
S
Prosser
Edi
E
Simoni
Laura
L
Astolfi
Anna Rita
AR
Fetoni
Henryk
H
Skarżyński
Alessandro
A
Martini
D000818:Animals; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000187:drug effects*; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D015233:Models, Statistical; D020011:Protective Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014451:Ubiquinone / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D014815:Vitamins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*
D020011:Protective Agents; D014815:Vitamins; D014451:Ubiquinone; C024989:coenzyme Q10