Development of a turnkey system for assessing forelimb function in rats and mice.

描述(申请人提供)：数百万美国人受到中风和脊髓损伤等神经系统疾病的影响。这些疾病往往会导致运动功能受损，并在受影响的人中导致严重残疾。尽管大力开发治疗方法来减轻这些疾病的负担，但几乎所有有希望的临床前治疗方法都未能成功地转化为临床。卒中治疗学术行业圆桌会议和NINDS的报告表明，消除结果偏差并确保适当功率的临床前研究将对提高这些研究的预测力产生重大影响，从而改善疗法的开发和成功翻译。目前最先进的评估运动功能的临床前模型劳动强度过大，存在实验者偏见的可能性，无法合理放大。在这里，我们计划全面开发我们的新型Mototrak系统，这是第一个高通量、自动化的啮齿动物操作性调节系统，能够分离、量化和跟踪大鼠和小鼠熟练的前肢表现。该系统量化了广泛的临床相关参数，包括前肢力量产生、手指伸展/屈曲、旋后/旋前和运动学运动速度。一名只接受过最低限度培训的技术人员可以同时对十几只动物进行实验，每天每只老鼠大约可以获得1000个实验样本。收集的数据的数量和准确性比目前可用的运动评估系统有了很大的改进。Vulintus建议将Mototrak从实验室级系统开发成商业上可行的产品，并向世界各地的学术研究实验室、制药公司、医疗设备公司和合同研究机构销售该系统。有了Mototrak，Vulintus有可能改变运动行为研究领域，并随后加强治疗神经疾病的疗法的开发。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Millions of Americans are affected by neurological disorders such as stroke and spinal cord injury. These disorders often result in impaired motor function and lead to significant disability amongst those affected. Despite major efforts to develop therapies to alleviate the burden of these disorders, virtually all promising preclinical therapies fail to successfully translate to the clinic. Reports from the Stroke Therapy Academic Industry Roundtable and the NINDS suggest that preclinical studies that eliminate outcome bias and ensure appropriate power would have a substantial impact on improving the predictive power of these studies, and consequently improve the development and successful translation of therapies. Current state-of-the-art preclinical models that evaluate motor function are exceedingly labor intensive, bear the potential for experimenter bias, and cannot reasonably be scaled up. Here, we propose to fully develop our novel MotoTrak system, the first high-throughput, automated rodent operant conditioning system able to isolate, quantify, and track skilled forelimb performance in rats and mice. The system quantifies a wide range of clinically relevant parameters, including forelimb force generation, digit extension/flexion, supination/pronation, and kinematic movement speed. A single minimally trained technician can run a dozen animals simultaneously and obtain approximately 1000 trial samples per rat per day. The amount and accuracy of the data collected represents a substantial improvement over current available motor assessment systems. Vulintus proposes to develop MotoTrak from a laboratory-grade system to a commercially viable product and market the system to academic research laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, and contract research organizations across the world. With MotoTrak, Vulintus has the potential to transform the field of motor behavioral research and subsequently enhance the development of therapies to treat neurological disorders.