Want your four-legged canine friend to live a few years longer? Researchers are working to make that happen with a pill.
The Dog Aging Project out of the University of Washington is on a mission to find the inner workings of the aging process in dogs and learn how to slow it down.
The initiative combines the efforts of dog owners, veterinarians and researchers to tackle one of dog owners’ greatest grievances — the short life span of man’s best friend, according to its website.
The Dog Aging Project — established in 2018 — is moving forward with its second phase of research by completing enrollment for dogs, according to a February news release.
Since dogs age roughly seven times the rate of humans, the window for understanding how dogs age and develop disease is significantly smaller, according to the study published Feb. 2 in Nature. The study also includes researchers at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.
The next phase of the project will introduce a clinical trial of a drug that might help slow down age-related ailments in dogs, helping them live longer, according to the project.
“Rapamycin (is) an immunosuppressive medication that has been used in humans for decades,” the news release said. “At lower doses, rapamycin has been shown to increase lifespan, improve heart and cognitive function, and reduce age-related disease incidence in laboratory species.”
Now, researchers think it may benefit dogs, too. So they’re putting it to the test.
The project examining dogs’ aging process and how rapamycin may impact it will last at least 10 years, according to the release. More than 32,000 dogs have been enrolled so far.
If an owner consents to participate in the clinical trial, their dog will be given either a placebo or the rapamycin to take over time and will have their data recorded annually.
“Our data will give veterinarians and scientists the tools to assess how well a specific dog is aging and set the stage for studies on the determinants of normative aging,” Dr. Kate Creevy, lead author and Dog Aging Project chief veterinary officer, said in the release.
