Dogs help people in countless ways -- from teaming with the visually impaired to sniffing out explosives. Dogs also are serving as models for medical research (much like lab rats), which is good news for people and even better news for dogs. That's because research dollars to study diseases in animals are more available if the research also benefits people.
Dogs are far better subjects to understand human disease because dogs naturally get many of the same diseases people do, according to veterinary oncologist Stephen Withrow, a specialist within the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. They also make good research subjects because they are more genetically diverse than most lab animals.
And dog research can be quickly translated into human disease treatment. Cancer is a great example: It's naturally occurring at nearly the same rate in pets as it is in people. The non-profit Morris Animal Foundation, for which I volunteer, is working with the National Cancer Institute's Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium to come up with cures.
"Working on both the canine and the human side speeds research to learn more about devastating diseases," says Joan Coates, associate professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. Coates is studying a possible connection between degenerative myelopathy in dogs and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
 Medical research on dogs has yielded possible treatments for people with diseases. |
Researchers have long suspected that bacteria play a role in Crohn's disease, but the specific types of bacteria that drive chronic intestinal inflammation have remained elusive. In 2007, an invasive E. coli bacterium was found in the intestinal linings of boxers with a specific type of colitis, and, as a result, long-term remission in the dogs is now achieved using antibiotics rather than immunosuppressive drugs. Further scientific investigation led to this breakthrough: A similar type of E. coli was found in the intestinal linings of some people with Crohn's. Kenneth Simpson, an internal medicine specialist at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, says this finding improves the chances that antibiotics may be developed to help Crohn's sufferers with this type of E. coli.
People, of course, are prone to type 2 diabetes, and so are cats and dogs -- except sled dogs. "No one knows why sled dogs aren't affected," says internal medicine specialist Michael Davis of the Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. "If we can learn why -- by reverse engineering of sled dog muscle cells -- the hope is to learn how to prevent type 2 diabetes in people, cats and dogs."
Here is more information about the cutting-edge medicine veterinarians use today that may ultimately help both dogs and people:
Sometimes, in both humans and dogs, diseases that don't seem to be associated may be. First discovered in 1973, degenerative myelopathy is a spontaneously occurring disease in dogs affecting the spinal cord, and later the nerves and muscles, ultimately leading to paralysis. For years, the cause of this disease has been a mystery.
Veterinary neurologist Joan Coates, associate professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, studied the disease, particularly in Pembroke Welsh corgis. A breakthrough arrived when she and colleagues, including Kerstin Linblad-Toh and Claire Wade, molecular genetic researchers at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard, discovered a gene called SOD1 in dogs with degenerative myelopathy. It turns out that same mutated gene is similar to the underlying cause of some forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. In dogs, genetic risk factors now can be tested, which will help breeders decrease the presence of the genetic mutation within the breed.
Now that the gene mutation is identified," Coates says, "our long-term goal is to work with human ALS researchers and their molecular therapeutic approaches, which, if safe and work for dogs, may also help people with ALS. All in all, working on both the canine and the human sides simultaneously speeds research to learn more about both of these devastating diseases."
Researchers have long suspected that bacteria play a role in Crohn's disease, but the specific types of bacteria that drive chronic intestinal inflammation have remained elusive. In 2007, an invasive E. coli bacterium was found in the intestinal linings of boxers with a specific type of colitis, and, as a result, long-term remission is now achieved through use of antibiotics rather than side-effect-laden immunosuppressive drugs. Further scientific investigation followed, leading to this breakthrough: A similar type of E. coli was found in the intestinal linings of some people with Crohn's disease. Kenneth Simpson, an internal medicine specialist at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, explains that this finding raises the real possibility that treating that subset (of about 30%) of people with Crohn's with this type of E.coli by using antibiotics might work to combat the disease.
People, of course, are prone to type 2 diabetes, and so are cats and all dogs - except sled dogs. "No one know why sled dogs aren't affected," says internal medicine specialist Michael Davis, Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. "If we can learn why by reverse engineering of sled dog muscle cells, the hope is ultimately to learn how to prevent type 2 diabetes in people, cats and dogs."
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