Over the past two decades, considerable progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying aminoglycoside ototoxicity. Aminoglycoside damage progresses from cochlear base to apex and from outer to inner hair cells. Aminoglycoside antibiotics enter hair cells at the apical pole and are taken up into lysosomes and mitochondria.…

Drug ototoxicity research has relied traditionally on animal models for the discovery and development of therapeutic interventions. More than 50 years of research, however, has delivered few--if any--successful clinical strategies for preventing or ameliorating the ototoxic effects of common pharmacological drugs such as aminoglycoside…