Discussing the Dog Aging Project with Matt Kaeberlein

The Life Extension Advocacy Foundation volunteers recently interviewed Matt Kaeberlein on the topic of the Dog Aging Project, a venture that aims to try in dogs some of the more credible and safe interventions shown to modestly slow aging in mice. When initially proposed, senolytics to clear senescent cells were not in that list, but we might hope to see that change in the years ahead. I'm not overly optimistic about the performance of the other possibilities, such as mTOR inhibitors and other candidate calorie restriction mimetic or exercise mimetic pharmaceuticals. In some cases the evidence is good for these items to work, in the sense of improving health and longevity to some degree, but in general we should expect the effects on life span to be small in longer-lived mammals. All of the mechanisms based on enhanced stress responses, such as those triggered by a lack of nutrients or undertaking strenuous exercise, scale down in their effect on life span for longer-lived species; short-lived species have a much greater plasticity of aging in response to environmental circumstances. Could you tell us the story of Dog Aging Project? How did it all start? About five years ago, a new recruit to the University of Washington Healthy Aging and Longevity Institute had recently obtained a small grant to develop companion dogs as a model to understand the genetic and environmental determinants of aging. After a series of discussions, it occurred to me that we had an o...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs