{"doi":"10.1101/2021.05.05.442757","title":"Drug distribution along the cochlea is strongly enhanced by low-frequency round window micro vibrations","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>The cochlea’s inaccessibility and complex nature provide significant challenges to delivering drugs and other agents uniformly, safely and efficiently, along the entire cochlear spiral. Large drug concentration gradients are formed along the cochlea when drugs are administered to the middle ear. This undermines the major goal of attaining therapeutic drug concentration windows along the whole cochlea. Here, utilizing a well-known physiological effect of salicylate, we demonstrate a proof of concept in which drug distribution along the entire cochlea is enhanced applying round window membrane low-frequency micro vibrations with a probe that only partially covers the round window. We provide evidence of enhanced drug influx into the cochlea and cochlear apical drug distribution without breaching cochlear boundaries. It is further suggested that ossicular functionality is not required for the effective drug distribution we report. The novel method of local drug delivery to the cochlea presented here could be implemented when ossicular functionality is absent or impeded and can be incorporated in clinically approved auditory protheses for patients who suffer with conductive, sensorineural or mixed hearing loss.</jats:p>","journal":null,"year":null,"id":675051,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":510341,"name":"Ian J. Russell","orcid":"0000-0002-4915-2772","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":510344,"name":"Andrei N. Lukashkin","orcid":"0000-0003-4577-8716","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1759670,"name":"Samuel M. Flaherty","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Drug distribution along the cochlea is strongly enhanced by low-frequency round window micro vibrations","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n                <jats:p>The cochlea’s inaccessibility and complex nature provide significant challenges to delivering drugs and other agents uniformly, safely and efficiently, along the entire cochlear spiral. Large drug concentration gradients are formed along the cochlea when drugs are administered to the middle ear. This undermines the major goal of attaining therapeutic drug concentration windows along the whole cochlea. Here, utilizing a well-known physiological effect of salicylate, we demonstrate a proof of concept in which drug distribution along the entire cochlea is enhanced applying round window membrane low-frequency micro vibrations with a probe that only partially covers the round window. We provide evidence of enhanced drug influx into the cochlea and cochlear apical drug distribution without breaching cochlear boundaries. It is further suggested that ossicular functionality is not required for the effective drug distribution we report. The novel method of local drug delivery to the cochlea presented here could be implemented when ossicular functionality is absent or impeded and can be incorporated in clinically approved auditory protheses for patients who suffer with conductive, sensorineural or mixed hearing loss.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"19965766","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W3175263399","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"UK Research and Innovation","grant_id":"MR/N004299/1","title":"Interaction between sensory and supporting cells in the organ of Corti: basis for sensitivity and frequency selectivity of mammalian cochlea."}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[],"oa_status":"green","license":"cc-by-nc-nd","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2021/05/06/2021.05.05.442757.full.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2021/05/06/2021.05.05.442757.full.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1101/2021.05.05.442757","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.05.442757","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2021.1943059","host_type":""},{"url":"https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10717544.2021.1943059?needAccess=true","host_type":""},{"url":"https://cris.brighton.ac.uk/ws/files/24791055/Drug_distribution_along_the_cochlea_is_strongly_enhanced_by_low_frequency_round_window_micro_vibrations.pdf","host_type":""},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34176371","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2021.1943059","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/1f218d8af4c44c4d91286dc711ed77f8","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.05.442757","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2021.1943059","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Acoustic Wave Resonator Technologies","Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics","Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation","03 medical and health sciences","0302 clinical medicine"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Cochlea","Round window","Oval window","Vibration","Distribution (mathematics)","Drug delivery","Biomedical engineering","Materials science","Audiology","Acoustics","Medicine","Middle ear","Physics","Nanotechnology","Anatomy","Mathematics","assisted diffusion in straight pipes","Guinea Pigs","Anti-Inflammatory Agents","RM1-950","acoustic streaming","round window membrane","inner ear drug delivery","Salicylates","intratympanic administration","Round Window, Ear","Animals","Therapeutics. Pharmacology","Research Article"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-16T19:31:17.718961Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}