Quantifying cognitive decline in dogs could help humans with Alzheimer's disease

Date:
May 9, 2022
Source:
North Carolina State University
Summary:
Researchers have found that a suite of complimentary tests can
quantify changes in dogs suspected of suffering from cognitive
decline. The approach could not only aid owners in managing
their elderly canine's care, but could also serve as a model for
evaluating cognitive decline progression in -- and treatments for --
humans with Alzheimer's disease.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers have found that a suite of complementary tests can quantify
changes in dogs suspected of suffering from cognitive decline. The
approach could not only aid owners in managing their elderly canine's
care, but could also serve as a model for evaluating cognitive decline progression in -- and treatments for -- humans with Alzheimer's disease.


========================================================================== Canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CCDS) is similar to Alzheimer's
disease in humans in that cognitive decline is associated with
the development of amyloid plaques as well as cortical atrophy, a
progressive degeneration of brain tissue. CCDS is also challenging
to diagnose. Traditionally, CCDS is diagnosed based on ruling out any
obvious physical conditions and an owner's answers to a questionnaire.

"One problem with the current approach is that questionnaires only capture
a constellation of home behaviors," says Natasha Olby, the Dr. Kady
M. Gjessing and Rahna M. Davidson Distinguished Chair in Gerontology
at North Carolina State University and co-senior author of a paper
describing the work. "There can be other reasons for what an owner may
perceive as cognitive decline - - anything from an undiagnosed infection
to a brain tumor." Olby and co-senior author Margaret Gruen, assistant professor of behavioral medicine at NC State, wanted to determine whether cognitive function could be accurately quantified in dogs.

"Our goal was to bring together multiple tools in order to get a more
complete picture of how CCDS presents in dogs," Gruen says.

To that end, the researchers recruited 39 dogs from 15 breeds. All of
them were in the senior and geriatric age range, but in good health
overall. A dog is considered "senior" if it is in the last 25% of its
expected life span based on breed and size, and geriatric beyond that.

The dogs underwent physical and orthopedic exams, as well as lab work
that included a blood test that is a marker of neuronal death. Their
owners filled out two commonly used diagnostic questionnaires, and then
the dogs participated in a series of cognitive tests designed to assess executive function, memory and attention.

"The approach we took isn't necessarily designed to be diagnostic;
instead, we want to use these tools to be able to identify dogs at
an early stage and be able to follow them as the disease progresses, quantifying the changes," Olby says.

The team found that cognitive and blood test results correlated well with
the questionnaire scores, suggesting that a multi-dimensional approach
can be used to quantify cognitive decline in aging dogs.

"Being able to diagnose and quantify CCDS in a way that is clinically safe
and relevant is a good first step toward being able to work with dogs as a model for Alzheimer's disease in humans," Olby says. "Many of the current models of Alzheimers disease -- in rodents, for example -- are good for understanding physiological changes, but not for testing treatments."
"Dogs live in our homes and develop naturally occurring disease just
like we do," Gruen says. "These findings show promise for both dogs and
humans in terms of improving our understanding of disease progression
as well as for potentially testing treatments." The work appears in
the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. NC State postdoctoral fellows Gilad
Fefer and Wojciech K. Panek are co-first authors of the work.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
North_Carolina_State_University. Original written by Tracey Peake. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Gilad Fefer, Wojciech K. Panek, Michael Z. Khan, Matthew Singer,
Hans
Westermeyer, Freya M. Mowat, David M. Murdoch, Beth Case, Natasha J.

Olby, Margaret E. Gruen. Use of Cognitive Testing, Questionnaires,
and Plasma Biomarkers to Quantify Cognitive Impairment in an Aging
Pet Dog Population. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 2022; 1 DOI:
10.3233/JAD- 215562 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220509150745.htm

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