Project Grant R41DC021592

This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), provides $295,662 to Rhino Therapeutics Inc. to evaluate the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs as potential treatments for age-related olfactory loss, or presbyosmia. The key objectives are to: 1) establish the optimal siRNA sequence, dosage, and exposure for activating human and mouse horizontal basal cells, which are dormant stem cells capable of regenerating the olfactory epithelium; 2) demonstrate the efficacy of the preferred siRNA approach for activating these stem cells in a mouse model of neurogenic exhaustion; and 3) evaluate the ability of in vitro siRNA-activated human horizontal basal cells to engraft, survive, and differentiate when xenotransplanted into the olfactory epithelium of immunocompromised rats. Completion of these aims would constitute an important step towards developing a first-in-field drug therapy for treating presbyosmia and potentially other forms of smell dysfunction.