by Paula Piatt
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Youth may not come from a fountain after all. But you may be able to use the water to wash down a pill.
While research continues to find new and better treatments for the diseases our Labradors get, there are scientists working to crack the ultimate code – slowing down the aging process and postponing the diseases it brings. Several new developments may hold promise for our senior pups.
A San Francisco-based biotech firm has received a stamp of “reasonable expectation of effectiveness” from the federal Food and Drug Administration for LOY-001, a shot given every three to six months to large breed dogs. The hope is that the drug will give dogs a year – or more – of not only life, but good health, according to Loyal, the company pursuing the research.
“The main goal of the project is to increase what we call healthspan, or the period of time before age-related diseases develop,” says Dr. Brennen McKenzie, Loyal’s director of veterinary medicine. The company is now pursuing conditional approval from the FDA, which would allow Loyal to market the drug while continuing to study its effectiveness and long-term safety. It’s hoping for a 2026 release date, subject to further study and FDA approval.
We all know that larger dogs live shorter lives than their smaller counterparts – sometimes by half. One of the main reasons, says Dr. McKenzie, may be intensive breeding. We’ve selected for body size, but at the same time, created biological changes – including an increase in the growth hormone IGF-1. Some research has shown that large dogs can have up to 28 times the amount of IGF-1 than smaller dogs. Loyal, according to its founder and CEO, Celine Halioua, created LOY-001 to reduce IGF-1 levels in large dogs to those more commonly seen in smaller breeds.
“IGF-1 doesn’t turn off when they’re fully grown; it continues to be at a high level throughout their life and that has some negative effects on health,” explains Dr. McKenzie. “By trying to rebalance that system… we can reduce some of the negative impacts of that intensive breeding for size.”
One of the exciting aspects of targeting aging, says Dr. McKenzie, is that it can be the root cause of a lot of our problems – both human and canine.
“You think about heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer as all separate disease, but the fact is, they all increase in likelihood as you get older because of the aging process and the effect on your body’s ability to stay healthy. And in dogs that are larger and age faster, all those diseases are things they experience sooner and at a higher rate,” he explains. “Targeting this basic aging mechanism will help reduce the risk of a whole bunch of different diseases that look superficially unrelated but are actually all connected through age.”
Read the rest of Paula’s article in the upcoming May/June 2024 issue! A reminder that active subscribers will also receive a digital version of the issue (email address required) as well as have access to a growing library of digital back issues!
