Studies involving acoustic and chemical insults show that growth factors represent a compelling class of otoprotective compounds (Yagi et al., The HGF mimetic Dihexa is a synthetically derived Angiotensin IV analog that is blood-brain barrier permeable, stable, and orally bioavailable (McCoy et al., in vitro and in vivo , making a strong case for a small molecule activator of HGF/c-Met to confer a neuroprotective benefit (Zhang et al., The experimental value of zebrafish as an animal model for in vivo drug discovery has grown rapidly due to their ease of assessment, large clutch size, and ability to recapitulate human disease conditions (MacRae and Peterson, in vivo , demonstrating that otoprotective drug discovery in zebrafish translates to mammalian systems (Owens et al., In this study, we demonstrate that Dihexa protects lateral line hair cells from aminoglycoside ototoxicity

The direct administration into the bloodstream ensures that the full dose of the substance is available, bypassing any potential degradation or incomplete absorption that might occur in the digestive system
Pierret, A
doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2024.116346 260 JiacongHQiruiYHaonanLYichangSYanCKengC
New York, NY: Springer (2014)