Canine cognitive dysfunction may be linked to Alzheimer's disease
Dogs could spontaneously develop a pathology similar to Alzheimer's disease (AD) associated with age and cognitive dysfunction. AD in humans is associated with increased levels of amyloid-beta (Aβ42). New research measured levels of this peptide in three brain areas (prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, hippocampus/entorhinal cortex) and cerebrospinal fluid of a group of companion dogs and found that its increase was associated with greater cognitive decline.
Dogs can play a determining role in your research
Current preclinical models are insufficient to investigate key aspects of the disease, as laboratory models include mice, which do not naturally develop AD-like pathology during aging, and laboratory beagle dogs, which do not share the environment with human.
On the contrary, companion dogs could play a determining role in the knowledge of AD and in the potential development of effective treatments since they share our environment, have heterogeneous genetics, and could spontaneously develop a pathology associated with age and a cognitive dysfunction similar to that suffered by people.
The study authors state that their results support the suitability of the companion dog as a model for AD and illustrate the utility of veterinary biobanks in making biospecimens available to researchers for analysis.
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