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

描述（由申请人提供）：数百万美国人受到神经系统疾病的影响，如中风和脊髓损伤。这些疾病通常会导致运动功能受损，并导致患者严重残疾。尽管人们努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转化为临床。来自脑卒中治疗学术行业圆桌会议和NINDS的报告表明，消除结果偏倚并确保适当功率的临床前研究将对提高这些研究的预测能力产生重大影响，从而改善治疗的开发和成功转化。目前最先进的评估运动功能的临床前模型是非常劳动密集型的，具有实验者偏见的潜力，并且不能合理地扩大规模。在这里，我们建议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条件反射系统，能够分离、量化和跟踪大鼠和小鼠的熟练前肢表现。该系统量化了广泛的临床相关参数，包括前肢力产生、手指伸/屈、旋/旋和运动学运动速度。一个受过最低限度训练的技术人员可以同时饲养十几只动物，每只大鼠每天可以获得大约1000个试验样本。所收集数据的数量和准确性比目前可用的电机评估系统有了实质性的改进。Vulintus建议将MotoTrak从实验室级系统开发为商业上可行的产品，并将该系统销售给世界各地的学术研究实验室、制药公司、医疗器械公司和合同研究组织。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系统疾病的疗法的发展。

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.