Longevity Drugs for Dogs: Potential Benefits for Humans Identified
Last year, a biotech company named Loyal revealed they were working on a drug that could extend our four-legged best friends’ lifespan, and today they’re planning to launch the medication early this year. According to Loyal, they are confident that their anti-aging medicine, LOY-002, will be available on the market this year. LOY-002 is one of the biotech’s company’s anti-aging medicine, a daily, beef-flavored pill specifically developed for dogs age 10 and older, weighing at least 14lb.
Can Dogs Hold the Key to Human Longevity?
“We’re developing LOY-002 to support healthy aging in senior dogs of nearly every size,” Loyal reveals on their website. “The product is meant to target metabolic dysfunction, which may extend the number of healthy years your dog lives and support their quality of life as they age.” The Guardian reports that Loyal has raised $125m in funding from companies who have held back from investing in human longevity projects due to the fact that trials would take decades. However, founder and chief executive of Loyal, Celine Halioua, believes that their work on the anti-aging dog medication can also benefit humans in the future. “Finding out how to prevent canine age-related decline is a really strong proxy for doing the same with humans because dogs get similar age-related diseases, and share our environments and habits in ways laboratory mice do not,” she said. Halioua pointed out that they’re not making immortal dogs but are extending dog lifespan by extending health and thus shortening the rate of aging.
Research on Rapamycin and Dog Longevity
Similarly, a team of researchers for the Dog Aging Project are studying rapamycin at the University of Washington to slow down the aging process of dogs, if given in low doses. Rapamycin is a cheap and easily produced drug that is already commonly used as an immunosuppressant for humans after organ transplant operations. The researchers believe that it can increase dogs’ lifespan by improving both their heart and cognitive functions by regulating cell growth and metabolism. Daniel Promislow, a biogerontologist at the University of Washington and a co-director of the Dog Aging Project, said, “Our study is light years ahead of anything that’s been done on humans or can be done on humans. What we’re doing is the equivalent of a 40-year-long study on humans, testing the ability of a drug to increase healthy lifespan.” While the drug is not officially approved for longevity use in humans, gerontologists believe that it has the potential to do so in the future. Kate Creevy, co-founder and chief veterinary officer of the project, also tells The Guardian that studying spayed and unspayed dogs could also provide insights into pre- and post-menopausal women’s health. Creezy explains, “We also have data on what age dogs have been spayed – which could cross over to the variation in age that women have their menopause – and data on why they were spayed, which could cross over to women who have had hysterectomies for medical reasons.”
Implications for Human Longevity
Furthermore, Promislow hopes that when the project finally reports in four to five years’ time, rapamycin will have the power to give dogs an extra three years of healthy life in their lifespan. Promislow said, “If we’re successful with dogs, it could be a turning point in informing us how to give human populations extra healthy lifespan too.” As research on longevity drugs for dogs progresses, it opens up new possibilities and insights into extending human life and improving quality of life in the future. The potential benefits identified through these studies offer a glimpse into a promising future where both dogs and humans could enjoy longer, healthier lives.
