Inhibition of the Adenosine A Receptor Mitigates Excitotoxic Injury in Organotypic Tissue Cultures of the Rat Cochlea.

The primary loss of cochlear glutamatergic afferent nerve synapses due to noise or ageing (cochlear neuropathy) often presents as difficulties in speech discrimination in noisy conditions (hidden hearing loss (HHL)). Currently, there is no treatment for this condition. Our previous studies in mice with genetic deletion of the adenosine A receptor (AR) have demonstrated better preservation of cochlear afferent synapses and spiral ganglion neurons after noise exposure compared to wildtype mice.