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

这个小型企业创新研究(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，因为它开发了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绝育解决方案。然而，到目前为止，这些努力都没有成功，手术绝育仍然是为雌性动物绝育的唯一选择。目前，绝育是一种侵入性的外科手术，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体力成本，对狗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。由于高昂的成本和与手术相关的感染或死亡的风险使手术费用难以控制，收容所每年因人口过剩而被迫对数百万只狗实施安乐死。通过非手术、廉价和快速的绝育，更多的母犬将在青春期之前被绝育，缓解了人口过剩的压力，并极大地降低了手术发病率和死亡率。拟议的项目旨在用一种单次注射绝育剂取代雌性狗的手术绝育，该绝育剂旨在导致永久性不孕，并在老鼠身上进行测试。该项目将确定在啮齿动物物种中观察到的生殖抑制是否对狗可遗传。具体地说，目标是确定有效和安全的剂量范围和时间窗口。将仔细跟踪这些动物进行健康和安全评估，并测量女性的生殖结果。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对雌性狗进行绝育。还将在公狗身上进行一项试点研究，以确定抑制睾丸发育成熟从而抑制青春期生育的最佳剂量。这一奖励反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.