Want your dog to be a part of science? Dog owners are being asked to volunteer their dogs for research on how the aging process can be slowed. Some dogs will take a pill, while others will just have data collected on their lives.
Old dogs, new tricks
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As if dogs don’t already do enough for humans, scientists are looking for 10,000 canine volunteers to test how to slow the aging process. It will be the largest study ever of aging in dogs, and researchers hope it will shed light on human longevity too.
Pet owners can nominate their dog at the Dog Aging Project’s website. All ages and sizes are welcome, as are purebreds and mutts. The dogs will live at home with their owners and follow their usual routine.
The project will collect vet records, DNA samples, gut microbes and information on food and walks during the five-year study. Owners will take periodic online surveys and take their dogs to the vet once a year and possibly more often for certain tests. Their welfare will be monitored by a bioethicist and a panel of animal welfare advisers.
Of all of the dogs studied, a select 500 that weigh more than 40 pounds will be given a pill called Rapamycin to see if the anti-aging drug could slow the aging process. The drug has been found to prolong the life of worms, fruit flies and mice, and can hopefully be replicated in dogs. One researcher told the Seattle Times that at least a 10-15% increase in average life span is possible.
Nearly 50 laboratory studies have shown that the drug can delay the onset of some diseases and degenerative processes and restore vigor to elderly animals, as well as extend average life spans by 9-40%. Rapamycin inactivates a protein that promotes cell growth, and slower growing cells retards the spread of cancer, scientists have found.
Dogs are being studied because dogs and humans share the same environment, get the same diseases, and dogs’ shorter lifespans allow quicker research results, the deputy director of the National Institute on Aging, which is paying for the $23 million project, told the Associated Press.
Cardiovascular effects are among the first things researchers hope to track in dogs. Some big breeds are particularly vulnerable to heart failure. Cancer is the leading cause of death among most breeds. Large dogs generally have shorter life spans than small breeds.