Drug that increases dog lifespan opens up hope for human longevity

Loyal, an American biotech startup, announced that it will launch LOY-002, a daily beef-flavored pill, in early 2025, with a promise to help dogs live at least an extra year.

Accordingly, the drug LOY-002 can slow and reverse metabolic changes associated with aging: reducing frailty by limiting the increase in insulin associated with aging.

However, this is not the ultimate goal of the project. Ms. Celine Halioua, founder and CEO of Loyal, affirmed that this project will benefit people.

“Finding a way to prevent age-related decline in dogs is a really powerful way to do the same thing in humans, because dogs suffer from similar age-related diseases, live in the same environment and have the same lifestyle as humans, unlike lab rats,” she said.

Meanwhile, the team working on the dog aging project took a similar approach with rapamycin, a cheap drug commonly used as an immunosuppressant in humans after organ transplants.

The drug rapamycin has been repeatedly shown to extend lifespan and delay, or even reverse, many age-related disorders in mice.

The team found that low doses of the drug rapamycin can extend the lifespan of dogs, improving both heart and cognitive function by regulating cell growth and metabolism.

The project is collecting samples and expects to report results in four to five years, with results demonstrating that rapamycin has the potential to help dogs live an additional three years of healthy life.

The project is expected to be a turning point in helping scientists learn how to prolong healthy human life.