An American tech company is planning to release the tastiest beef dog life pills possible extending their life up to one year – and some scientists think that similar drugs can do the same for people.
A San Francisco-based company, Loyal, aims to bring LOY-002 pills to market in early 2025. The daily drug is designed to slow and reverse the metabolic changes associated with aging.
In particular, the pill reduces weakness by suppressing insulin levels due to aging, thus reducing the risk of diseaseimproving health and slowing down aging.
LOY-002 is currently undergoing clinical trials in dogs, and the company is looking next year for FDA formal acceptance.
But Loyal isn’t the only research group looking to improve the lives of our canine companions. At the Dog Aging Project laboratory at the University of Washington (UW), researchers are testing rapamycin as an alternative canine longevity drug.
Rapamycin is used as an immunosuppressant in humans after organ transplant surgery, but it has already shown promise as a longevity drug in mice, extending life span and delaying or reversing many age-related diseases.
The Dog Aging Project suggests that low doses of rapamycin may have similar effects in dogs, specifically by regulating cell growth and metabolism to improve cardiovascular function and cognition. The research aims to extend the lifespan of dogs by up to three years.
Everyone wants more time with their precious pets. But that is not the only thing that motivates these scientists. They believe that this work can also translate into benefits for people’s longevity.
Researchers are developing a new drug that could extend a dog’s life by one to three years. Ultimately, it can also be used to improve people’s lives
“Finding out how to prevent canine aging is a great way to do the same thing with humans because dogs get age-related diseases, and share our environments and habits in ways that laboratory mice don’t,” Celine Halioua, founder and CEO of Loyal , he said Guardian.
Loyal has raised $125 million from companies that have stopped investing in long-term projects because of the length of the trial. Dog adoption trials, however, move quickly due to their naturally short life span.
The Dog Aging Project recognizes the connection between canine longevity and human longevity, too.
“If we’re successful with dogs, it could be a turning point in how we can help people live healthier lives,” project leader and UW plant biologist Daniel Promislow told the Guardian.
‘Our study is much lighter than anything that has been done on humans or will ever be done on humans,’ he added.
‘What we are doing is the equivalent of 40 years of human research, testing the power of medicine to increase health.’
Promislow and her colleagues believe their research could also have implications for women’s health, especially women who are nearing menopause and postmenopausal.
This is because they divide their gains not only into male and female dogs, but also by spaying or neutering or spaying.
‘We also have information about the age at which the dogs were given – which can be passed on to differences in the age at which women go through menopause – and why they gave birth, which can be passed on to women who have had hysterectomies for medical reasons,’ Kate Creevy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of the project, told Guardian.
Helping dogs live a long, healthy life also benefits human longevity in other ways as well. Studies have shown that owning a dog improves a person’s health and reduces the risk of death
In addition, research shows that owning a dog can help people live longer, healthier lives – another reason why finding ways to extend a dog’s life can benefit a person’s longevity.
A two about education published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes shows that owning dogs is associated with a 21 percent reduction in the risk of death from heart disease.
In addition, experts recognize that owning a dog encourages an active lifestyle, as our furry friends require regular exercise, supervision and playtime.
Studies have shown that dogs have a positive effect on our mental health, too, by reducing stress, promoting social connection and combating loneliness.
Although the early results of the scientists of the Loyal and Dog Aging Project are promising, this growing field of research still has a long way to go before the findings can be directly applied to people’s lives.
The Dog Aging Project still has five years to report its results. And at this time, researchers cannot test canine medicine for humans, no matter how good the results are for dogs, Jamie Justice, professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, told the Guardian.
“Because we can’t measure 40 years of longevity in humans, we need a universally accepted biomarker to show the effect of drugs on predictors of health problems that we agree are associated with aging,” he said.
But if scientists can agree on these parameters, testing can begin in humans. In the meantime, these researchers will continue to expand the lifespan of man’s best friend.
