(dog image used here by permission, but not free to use)
Dogs can have behavior problems, and can get old, sure, but do our “best friends” get dementia? Every one can see that older dogs slow down, but in my Alzheimer Op-eds I objected to TV commercials touting brainy dog foods that turned sweet very ‘ol Fido into a romping puppy again. I don’t doubt the problem, but I didn’t like the commercials.
I wonder if any desperate humans tried some of that dog food. Or could the dog food be used in a human trial? (one could also test the hypothesis that anything is edible with ketchup, or the right hot sauce.) I’m not gonna discuss the cognitive claims on pet food labels, and proprietary “animal clinical trials,” but yes, the US FDA regulates both pet food and human prescription drugs. Different department and different criteria for approval, of course.
But actual canine dementia? That was kinda new to me until I saw an online magazine article about it a few years ago. There is evidently a clinic for it, in our state, at the WSU Vet School ( I’m not affiliated). More recently, I came across a blog posting for a seminar about “multi-species” cognitive issues, held at a Scottish university. They served a vegan lunch.
With my superficial look at things, it’s unclear whether canine neuropathology correlates to human findings; one abstract seems to say there are similarities but perhaps not much amyloid or tau or correlation to behavior. One can evidently induce human-like brain pathology in genetically manipulated mice, but rodents don’t seem to be a great animal model for screening therapeutics.
So, moral, ethical, and other philosophical issues aside, it looks like there aren’t great animal models to test new therapies in dementia (including fruit flies and tiny roundworms), so step-wise human trials are probably still necessary to get anywhere. In the meantime, notice how many new CBD dog treats they have in pet food stores these days?
This is America, one can assume that a dog treat MBA has calculated the risk vs. the profit, and assessed the market potential, the same as Pharma. Just think if we had human treats that really helped with cognition! Might have to test it on our pooch first, but could be a better investment than cryptocurrency!
This nice poster was found with a review of rodent models in neuroscience; it offered the image “free”, so I’m assuming it’s OK to reproduce here:
