Individually Customisable, Non-Invasive Head Immobilisation for Primates with the Option for Voluntary Engagement

灵长类动物可单独定制的非侵入性头部固定装置，可选择自愿参与

• 批准号: NC/K000608/1
• 负责人: Christopher Petkov
• 金额: $ 9.58万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NC%2FK000608%2F1
• 关键词: Individually; Customisable; Non; Invasive; Head

Many neuroscientific laboratories that require head immobilisation in animal procedures use surgically implanted head posts. By contrast, nearly all head immobilisation procedures with humans rely on non-invasive head restraint techniques. Some attempts have been made over the years to develop non-invasive head restraints for, in particular, work with awake and behaving nonhuman primates, but these systems have had little impact in replacing the surgically implanted head posts. We have identified several reasons why the previous systems may not have been broadly accepted. Some of the issues are that the current systems, 1) are of the 'one size fits all' approach and thus will not work with animals of different sizes or those of different species, 2) often prevent access for eye tracking and sound or visual stimulation that many laboratories require during head immobilisation, 3) cause distress when being used, 4) create pressure points that can become infected or do not sufficiently immobilise the head, and 5) to our knowledge, there do not seem to be options where the animals can be trained to voluntarily engage a head immobilisation system for shorter period of restraint. Thus many laboratories continue to rely on what they are used to: surgically implanted head post options. We propose a customised head immobilisation system and an approach in this proposal that aims to address all of these issues. Our approach is based on non-invasive head restraints that are being used daily in hospitals across the U.K. for adult and child cancer patients. For instance if a person is diagnosed with head or neck cancer this might require urgent radiotherapy treatment. This treatment depends on a precise, customised head immobilisation system so that head movement can be minimised during high-energy radiotherapy that targets cancerous cells while minimising neighbouring tissue damage. Thereby, cancer radiotherapy units have become experts at providing individually customised, non-invasive head immobilisation options for patients of many sizes. For this project we have established a collaboration with the Cancer Radiotherapy Unit at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. Out of the approaches that they routinely use with humans we have identified one that has the potential to overcome the limitations of previous head restrain approaches in nonhuman primates. We aim to develop and test this system in several primates of different sizes (and in two different species). We will evaluate the effectiveness of the system and the quality of the data that can be obtained using common neuroscientific procedures and will engage a commercial partner to help us to broadly market and distribute the systems. In particular, we aim to develop highly customisable helmets and a novel approach where the animals will be trained to engage a face mask system for shorter periods of immobilisation. In these ways, the project provides considerable opportunity for innovation to help to reduce the reliance on invasive approaches. In particular for animals participating in non-invasive procedures, such as brain imaging or infra-red eye tracking techniques that are commonly in use with humans, a non-invasive head immobilisation system has the opportunity to make these approaches 100% non-invasive.

许多需要在动物手术中固定头部的神经科学实验室使用手术植入的头柱。相比之下，几乎所有的头部固定程序与人类依赖于非侵入性头枕技术。多年来，已经进行了一些尝试来开发非侵入性头枕，特别是用于清醒和行为非人灵长类动物的工作，但这些系统在取代手术植入的头柱方面几乎没有影响。我们已经确定了以前的系统可能没有被广泛接受的几个原因。一些问题是，当前的系统，1）是“一种尺寸适合所有”的方法，因此将不能与不同尺寸的动物或不同物种的动物一起工作，2）经常阻止许多实验室在头部固定期间需要的眼睛跟踪和声音或视觉刺激的进入，3）在使用时引起痛苦，4）产生可能被感染或不能充分固定头部的压力点，以及5）据我们所知，似乎没有选择可以训练动物自愿使用头部固定系统以进行较短时间的束缚。因此，许多实验室继续依赖于他们所习惯的：手术植入头柱选项。我们提出了一个定制的头部固定系统，并在本提案中提出了一种旨在解决所有这些问题的方法。我们的方法是基于非侵入性头枕，这是每天在英国各地的医院使用。成人和儿童癌症患者。例如，如果一个人被诊断患有头颈癌，这可能需要紧急放射治疗。这种治疗依赖于精确的定制头部固定系统，以便在靶向癌细胞的高能放射治疗期间最大限度地减少头部移动，同时最大限度地减少邻近组织的损伤。因此，癌症放射治疗单位已成为专家，为各种体型的患者提供个性化定制的非侵入性头部固定选项。在这个项目中，我们与纽卡斯尔弗里曼医院的癌症放射治疗部门建立了合作关系。在他们对人类常规使用的方法中，我们已经确定了一种有可能克服非人灵长类动物先前头部限制方法的局限性的方法。我们的目标是在几种不同大小的灵长类动物（以及两种不同的物种）中开发和测试这个系统。我们将评估系统的有效性和使用常见神经科学程序可以获得的数据质量，并将聘请商业合作伙伴帮助我们广泛营销和分销系统。特别是，我们的目标是开发高度定制的头盔和一种新的方法，即训练动物使用面罩系统以缩短固定时间。通过这些方式，该项目为创新提供了相当大的机会，以帮助减少对侵入性方法的依赖。特别是对于参与非侵入性程序的动物，例如通常用于人类的脑成像或红外线眼睛跟踪技术，非侵入性头部固定系统有机会使这些方法100%非侵入性。