Drugs aimed at extending the life of our four-legged friends could lead to benefits for humans, some scientists believe

Every six months, Casey undergoes careful cardiac testing at a lab; she has been through extensive genetic profiling and is now enrolled in a drug trial that researchers believe could extend her life. Casey, an 11-year-old labrador-German shepherd cross who lives with her owner Kate Saunders in Massachusetts, is part of the growing effort to help dogs live better for longer, and which gerontologists hope may improve human longevity too.

Late last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) centre for veterinary medicine gave conditional approval for a drug created by San Francisco-based biotech company Loyal that could be available as a life-extending tool for large dogs by 2026.

The news from Loyal has given fresh hope to Saunders, and numerous other owners for whom extra “healthspan” (the healthy period of life) for their pets is a chance not to be missed. The new drug, LOY-001, targets a growth hormone called IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor), the presence of which is some 28 times greater in large dogs compared with small ones. (It occurs naturally in humans too.)

  • naeap
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    10 months ago

    I think people dying is important for a society to not get stuck and can modernize itself. Old ideas often need to die with their people.

    One could argue that this is just because of incompetence of specific people, but I think more and more, that it’s ingrained, that we have a build our image of the world to fit our needs and then work with it. Besides some extensions and modifications, it seems that the basics/primitives are staying the same, even when ideologies change.

    IMHO we need to die just to give room for new people and ideas

    (don’t have any source for any of this, so maybe it’s just made up bullshit)