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Dog Aging Project

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dog Aging Project is a long-term biological study of aging in dogs, centered at the University of Washington.[1] The Dog Aging Project was founded in 2014[1][2] and received a US$200,000 seed grant from the University of Washington. It has also received funding from small private donors,[2] an example of crowdfunding. Professor Daniel Promislow is the director of the project. Its Chief Veterinarian is Dr. Kate Creevy.[3]

Description and history

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The project primarily focuses on research to understand dog aging through the collection and analysis of big data through citizen science. Additionally, a small component of the project explores the use of pharmaceuticals to potentially increase life span of dogs. The project has implications for improving the life spans of humans and is an example of geroscience.[4][5]

Chemical structure of rapamycin, a pharmaceutical under evaluation for its effects on longevity

The project engages the general public to register their dogs in the studies, and therefore the project is an example of citizen science.[4] As of 2022 nearly 40,000 dogs have been registered with the project.[1] The majority of the dogs will participate in a longitudinal study of 10,000 dogs over a 10-year period conducted across the United States. Individual dogs are followed for the duration of their lives to understand the biological and environmental factors that influence dog longevity. A small subset of those dogs (approximately 500) will be enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the pharmaceutical rapamycin, which has shown signs of extending longevity in species such as mice.

The Dog Aging Project is an open science initiative. The investigators have committed to releasing all anonymized research data to the public domain. The longitudinal study portion of the Dog Aging Project bears some similarity to the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study of the Morris Animal Foundation although with much larger phenotypic diversity.[6][7] The entire project also shares operational similarities to Darwin's Ark, a citizen science initiative of companion animals with more specific focus on genetics. The initiatives are each managed to ensure the data can be integrated into a powerful master data set.

A premise of the project is that dogs may be a sentinel species for humans since they live in the same environment as humans. The project may thereby help identify risk factors that influence human life span.[4] Since dogs age significantly more rapidly than humans, data on aging can be generated much more rapidly using a dog model than in human studies.[5] A further premise is that the longitudinal portion of the project seeks to understand the underlying biology of aging, as opposed to understanding individual age-related diseases. In this respect, if the aging process itself is addressed, then several age-related diseases could be delayed or avoided simultaneously. This is important because elderly individuals often have multiple chronic disease conditions.[5]

In 2017 the project reported the results of a 10-week trial showing that a small number of dogs that received rapamycin had better heart function than a control group.[8][1] As of 2018, the National Institute on Aging awarded the Dog Aging Project a five-year grant to support further studies. Researchers from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences are also investigators in the study.[9]

Research

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The project's design was published in 2022; it enrolls pet dogs of all ages and breeds through owner-completed surveys, with subsets providing veterinary records, DNA and biological samples.[10] A "precision cohort" of about 1,000 dogs contributes longitudinal multi-omic data (genome, epigenome, metabolome, microbiome) for geroscience research.[11] De-identified data are released to researchers on a periodic schedule with public codebooks.[12]

Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs

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The Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs (TRIAD) is a prospective, parallel-group, double-masked, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of rapamycin in healthy middle-aged dogs recruited from project participants, with lifespan and several healthspan measures as endpoints; its investigators describe it as the first rigorous test of a drug against biological aging with such endpoints outside the laboratory in any species.[13] It follows two smaller placebo-controlled trials of rapamycin in companion dogs.[14][15]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Ogden, Lesley Evans (27 July 2022). "Inside the brains of aging dogs". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-072622-1. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 Doughton, Sandi (2 November 2014). "UW scientists seek to extend dogs' lives with anti-aging drug". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  3. ↑ "Our Team". Dog Aging Project. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Matchar, Emily (August 29, 2016). "The Dog Aging Project Wants to Help Your Pet Live Longer". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Harmon, Amy (May 16, 2016). "Dogs Test Drugs Aimed at Humans' Biggest Killer: Age". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  6. ↑ Vogelsang, Jessica. "Rapamycin: A real fountain of youth?". veterinarynews.360dvm.com. UBM Life Sciences, Veterinary. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  7. ↑ Golbeck, Jennifer (3 April 2015). "Sick as a Dog?". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  8. ↑ Filler, Lane (May 18, 2016). "It's a Dog's Life. That Could be Great". Newsday. Archived from the original on May 19, 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  9. ↑ Kim, Allen (November 15, 2019). "Wanted: 10,000 Dogs for the Largest-Ever Study on Aging in Canines". CNN.com. Warner Media. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  10. ↑ "An open science study of ageing in companion dogs". Nature. 2022. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04282-9. PMC 8940555. PMID 35110758.
  11. ↑ "Rationale and design of the Dog Aging Project precision cohort: a multi-omic resource for longitudinal research in geroscience". GeroScience. 2025. doi:10.1007/s11357-025-01571-3. PMC 12397037. PMID 40038157.
  12. ↑ "Data access". Dog Aging Project. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  13. ↑ "Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs (TRIAD): study design and rationale for a prospective, parallel-group, double-masked, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of rapamycin in healthy middle-aged dogs from the Dog Aging Project". GeroScience. 2025. doi:10.1007/s11357-024-01484-7. PMC 12181551. PMID 39951177.
  14. ↑ "A randomized controlled trial to establish effects of short-term rapamycin treatment in 24 middle-aged companion dogs". GeroScience. 2017. doi:10.1007/s11357-017-9972-z. PMC 5411365. PMID 28374166.
  15. ↑ "A masked, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial evaluating safety and the effect on cardiac function of low-dose rapamycin in 17 healthy client-owned dogs". Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2023. doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1168711. PMC 10233048. PMID 37275618.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
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