Development of Noninvasive System for Detection of Sleep Apnea in Animals

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是开发和商业化非侵入性设备，称为睡眠和呼吸跟踪（SARTrak）系统，用于动物睡眠呼吸暂停的高通量检测。I期申请的具体目标是设计和评价具有八个腔室（每只动物一个腔室）的SARTrak系统的基本模型，即，SARTrak-8，用于检测小鼠的睡眠呼吸暂停。该项目随后将为未来开发和商业化高通量模型SARTrak-64铺平道路，SARTrak-64是SARTrak系统的64个室，目标是药物筛选市场。 睡眠呼吸暂停是一种常见的医学疾病，存在于5%-9%的人口中。睡眠呼吸暂停综合征的治疗方法有哪些？睡眠呼吸暂停发生在睡眠中，但不是醒着，这表明神经调节的重要参与和药物治疗的可能性。然而，目前还没有有效的药物用于睡眠呼吸暂停患者。这种差异的一个关键原因是缺乏一种有效的方法来筛选抗呼吸暂停药物。尽管基于分子和细胞的测定通常用于药物开发，但是，这需要疾病的明确概念病理学。目前为止，这在睡眠呼吸暂停中是不可用的，并且在睡眠期间电生理记录的“呼吸暂停”是该疾病的唯一公认的标记。 该背景提示用于开发能够更有效地检测睡眠呼吸暂停的设备的非侵入性高通量模型。我们提出了设计、开发和测试上述设备的三个具体目标，即，SARTrak-8作为I期研究。我们将结合压电薄膜（PEF）技术和全身体积描记术设计和开发SARTrak-8的硬件。我们将为SARTrak-8系统开发数据采集和离线分析软件程序。该程序将收集行为和呼吸活动的PEF活动，并自动分析和计算睡眠呼吸暂停。我们最终将在小鼠中评估SARTrak-8的整个系统的准确性和效率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is to develop and commercialize noninvasive equipment, called the sleep and respiratory track (SARTrak) system, for high throughput detection of sleep apnea in animals. The specific goal for the Phase I application is to design and evaluate a basic model of the SARTrak system with eight chambers (one chamber per animal), i.e., SARTrak-8, for detection of sleep apnea in mice. This project will subsequently pave the way for future development and commercialization of a high throughput model, SARTrak-64, a 64 chamber of SARTrak system, to target the drug screening market. Sleep Apnea is a common medical condition, present in 5%-9% of the population. There is currently no drug available for pharmacotherapy of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea occurs during sleep but not wake suggesting the crucial involvement of neural regulation and the possibility of pharmacotherapy. However, currently there are no effective drugs for individuals with sleep apnea. A critical reason for this discrepancy is a lack of an efficient way to screen anti-apnea drugs. Although, molecular and cell based assays are commonly used in drug development, however, this requires a clear concept pathology of the disease. This is not available in sleep apnea so far and electrophysiologically recorded "apnea" during sleep is the only recognized marker of the disease. This background prompt use for the development of a noninvasive high throughput model of equipment that is able to detect sleep apnea much more efficiently. We propose three specific aims to design, develop and test the aforementioned equipment, i.e., SARTrak-8 as the Phase I study. We will design and develop the hardware of SARTrak-8 by combining the piezo electric film (PEF) technique and whole body plethysmography. We will develop a data acquisition and offline analysis software program for the SARTrak-8 system. The program will collect PEF activity for both behavior and respiratory activity as well as analyze and calculate sleep apnea automatically. We will finally evaluate the entire system of SARTrak-8 in mice for the accuracy and efficiency.