The hardest part of owning a dog is saying goodbye. But what if you could push that heartwrenching goodbye out by years?

Researchers with the University of Washington think they have identified a drug that could possibly extend a dog’s life by up to three years. The Dog Aging Project, established in 2018, set out to find a way to extend a dog’s lifespan and researchers with the project believe that rapamycin could be one of the keys to making it happen.

Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, co-founder of the Dog Aging Project at the University of Washington said, “So you can take an old heart or an old immune system and treat a mouse with rapamycin for eight weeks and see that function improve. I know it sounds a little bit like science fiction. But when you actually look at the data, it’s quite remarkable.”

Because dogs age in a similar fashion to people, there is hope that the drug could extend the lives of people too. Kaeberlein said, “It hasn’t been tested in the context of lower doses and otherwise healthy people. There really are very little in the way of side effects and potentially pretty significant benefits for age-related functional declines and diseases.”

Learn more about the Dog Aging Project at this link.

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