SBIR Phase I: Safe and effective injectable alternative to surgical spays in female dogs

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响将使母狗、它们的主人、收容所和兽医受益，开发出一种单次注射绝育剂，消除了母狗和照顾它们的人的手术绝育负担。几十年来，科学家们一直致力于开发一种负担得起的非手术灭菌解决方案。然而，迄今为止的努力并不成功，外科喷雾仍然是雌性动物绝育的唯一选择。目前，绝育是一种侵入性外科手术，需要切除健康动物的生殖器官，这对狗来说是巨大的风险和身体成本，对主人来说是经济和情感成本，对兽医来说是时间成本，对收容所来说是巨大的经济成本。由于高昂的成本和手术相关感染或死亡的风险使得外科手术无法管理，收容所被迫每年对数百万只狗实施安乐死。通过使绝育非手术，廉价，快速，更多的雌性狗将在进入青春期之前绝育，缓解人口过剩的压力，并大大降低手术发病率和死亡率。 拟议的项目旨在用一种一次性注射绝育剂取代对雌狗的外科绝育手术，这种绝育剂旨在诱导永久性绝育，并在大鼠身上进行了测试。本项目将确定在啮齿类动物中观察到的生殖抑制是否可转移至犬。具体而言，目标是确定有效和安全的剂量范围和时间窗。将对动物进行仔细随访，以进行健康和安全性评估，并测量雌性生殖结局。如果成功，该项目将表明可以在不诉诸侵入性物理手术的情况下实现雌性狗的绝育。还将在雄性犬中进行试点研究，以确定抑制睾丸发育成熟的最佳剂量，从而抑制青春期的生育能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will benefit female dogs, their owners, shelters, and veterinarians with the development of a single-injection sterilant, eliminating the burden of surgical sterilization for female dogs and those that care for them. Scientists have worked for decades to develop an affordable non-surgical sterilization solution. However, efforts to date have been unsuccessful, and surgical spaying remains as the sole option available for sterilizing female animals. At present, sterilization is an invasive surgical procedure that requires the removal of a healthy animal’s reproductive organs at great risk and physical cost to the dog, financial and emotional cost to the owner, time cost to the veterinarian, and significant financial cost to shelters. Because the high cost and the risk of developing surgery-related infection or death makes surgical spays unmanageable, shelters are forced to euthanize millions of dogs each year due to overpopulation. By making spays non-surgical, inexpensive, and quick, more female dogs will be sterilized before reaching puberty, relieving the strain of overpopulation and dramatically reducing surgical morbidity and mortality. The proposed project seeks to replace surgical sterilization for female dogs with a single injection sterilant designed to induce permanent sterility and tested in rats. This project will determine whether reproductive inhibition observed in rodent species will be translatable to the dog. Specifically, the goal is to identify effective and safe dosage range and temporal window. The animals will be carefully followed for health and safety assessments and female reproductive outcomes will be measured. If successful, this project will indicate that sterilization can be achieved in female dogs without resorting to invasive physical surgery. A pilot study will also be performed in male dogs to determine an optimal dose that will inhibit developmental maturation of the testis and thus inhibit fertility at puberty.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.