Research
Roadmap To A Cure
The following article was written by Anthony Cacace, Ph.D.; Richard Salvi, Ph.D.; Jim Kaltenbach, Ph.D.; Jay Rubinstein, Ph.D.; and Michael Seidman, M.D., ATA's Roadmap to a Cure sub-committee. It answers the basic questions about the Roadmap and how it is guiding researchers far and wide to explore and find a cure for tinnitus.
On the Right Path – The Roadmap to a Cure
What is the Roadmap to a Cure?
Simply, it's a chart that identifies what we know about tinnitus right now and what additional information we need so that we can make progress in developing a cure. Because science doesn't always follow a direct course, a roadmap is a good way to help shorten the path from the starting point to the final goal.
We see this Roadmap as a way to give tinnitus patients and researchers everywhere a firm grasp of what's going on in tinnitus research. There are many battles along the way, and each little battle is important to fight and win. If we find a solution to any one of the Paths, we will have helped improve people's lives. And though improvement is not a cure, our Roadmap will ultimately take us there.
Who uses the Roadmap?
When you look at ATA's Roadmap, you will see that no single individual could tackle all the different areas we identify. The map allows researchers in different areas of exploration to contribute to the overall success of the Roadmap. It also provides us with a way to attract talented researchers from a variety of specialties. This ultimately might have the biggest impact on resolving tinnitus.
What do the four different paths of the Roadmap represent?
The Roadmap is a sequence of steps along four paths – A, B, C and D – that begins with finding out what is responsible for producing tinnitus and ends with a successful tinnitus treatment.
Path A: leads us to identify where the problem is in the brain.
Path B: will determine the underlying mechanism (action) that causes tinnitus. Like doing an auto diagnostic, we identify the broken part and then what caused it to break.
Path C: will lead us to develop a general therapy for tinnitus.
Path D: leads us to customizing the therapy or therapies for individual tinnitus patients.
How does work on the four paths coordinate?
Even though we don't have a full understanding of what's going on in Paths A and B, there is work going on now along Paths C and D. This doesn't at all rule out the potential for successful studies. Many discoveries are made serendipitously. Somebody may, in fact, come up with a therapy that works even though the reason why it works isn't fully understood.
Where on the Roadmap are we now?
Different labs and clinics are in different places on the Roadmap. Clinicians tend to be in Path A, looking for abnormal activity in the brains of their tinnitus patients with imaging techniques, such as MRIs. Other researchers are working in Path C, looking for evidence that certain treatments are better than others, e.g., how one masking method may be better than another. Because we have not yet found any one treatment that works for most people with tinnitus, Path D is probably the furthest down the road.
When is the Roadmap going to make a difference in the lives of tinnitus patients?
It could happen anytime. Somebody might be developing a drug right now that will work. Many of us feel very optimistic that we will see a major breakthrough within the next five years.
