One traditional quantitative animal assay for peripheral neuropathy involves measuring the animal's behavioral threshold to noxious thermal stimulation. A limitation of this approach is that thermally activated sensory populations are for the most part unmyelinated; hence, correlation with direct electrophysiological recording is extremely difficult and time-consuming. Alternatively, monofilament testing with hand-held probes provides a ranking of sensory threshold in large mechanosensory axons, which are relatively easy to record and identify histologically. In addition, recent evidence supports the concept that mechanoreceptor sensory pathways are involved in signaling chronic pain. The development of a stimulation procedure that is more quantitative than monofilament testing would be of benefit in behavioral studies of peripheral sensory neuropathy (e.g., diabetes, burn injury, compression, and AIDS), and development of new drugs for treatment of chronic pain, as well as basic investigations in genetics and neurobiology. Neuroscience research proposes the commercial development model system with standard procedures and instrumentation to quantify mechanosensory-related neuropathy in animal models. Phase I will test system feasibility in animal models of peripheral neuropathy that exhibit mechanical allodynia (diminished threshold to mechanically induced pain).
Markets for instrumentation to quantify animal peripheral neuropathy include numerous basic and applied research laboratories; e.g., those involved in genetic, neuroscience, and neurobiological studies of peripheral neural development and function; pharmaceutical companies screening for compounds to treat acute and chromic pain, as well as neurotoxicity; and laboratories studying peripheral neuropathy (e.g., AIDS, diabetic, compression, chemical neurotoxicology).
