Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EVOLOR (Cognitive Ageing in Dogs)

Teaser

The Senior Family Dog Project aims to explore the cognitive ageing of family dogs using an interdisciplinary approach with behavioural, neuroscientific and genetic testing methods. Our goal is twofold: to characterise the ageing phenotype with cross-sectional and longitudinal...

Summary

The Senior Family Dog Project aims to explore the cognitive ageing of family dogs using an interdisciplinary approach with behavioural, neuroscientific and genetic testing methods. Our goal is twofold: to characterise the ageing phenotype with cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations, and identify the underlying processes to increase canine welfare and aid the understanding of the biology of human cognitive ageing.
The study addresses economical, societal, mental health, animal welfare, and educational aspects. Roughly, one third of all family households maintain one or more pet dogs around the world, with many reporting that their dog is considered as part of their family. Pet dogs share our environment more than any other species and develop homologues of the most prevalent age-related human diseases. Modern health care and nutrition have led to a significant increase in the average lifespan of humans and pet dogs and therefore in health-related costs and emotional burden, too. Early detection and preventive measures can extend the healthspan of ageing dogs, which indirectly contributes to the quality of life of the owner and decreases veterinary expenses. With the rapidly ageing population of Europe, related research is a priority. The pet dog is a particularly powerful model to better understand the determinants of age-related cognitive decline in humans.
Our overall objective is to use the pet dog as a model species to promote healthy ageing, understand the causal factors contributing to cognitive decline during senescence based on large scale, worldwide surveys, and develop sensitive and standardized behaviour tests to enable early detection of pathological cognitive decline. The “Canine Mini Mental Test” (modelled on the Mini Mental State Examination developed to quantitatively assess cognitive impairments in humans) will enable veterinarians, dog trainers, and behaviour counsellors to assess the dogs’ cognitive abilities, and document changes occurring over time. We also aim to identify neural markers of ageing with non-invasive neuroimaging techniques and uncover the genetic background of extremely long life by sequencing the genome of Methuselah dogs. Our recently established Canine Brain and Tissue Bank provides samples for both gross anatomical evaluation and also for tracing cellular changes (e.g. by RNA-analysis, immunohistochemistry, and proteomics). The database of this Bank includes both molecular and behavioural data from individuals and offers a unique opportunity for obtaining specific canine brain tissues.

Work performed

In the first 30 months we have published 16 peer reviewed papers (Cum. IF = 37.12), submitted 10 manuscripts and 58 conference abstracts, and contributed altogether to more than 300 disseminations. The visibility of the project is high, especially in Hungary, demonstrated also by the acknowledgment of the PI (through the presentation of a prestigious award, scholarships, and YAE membership), and national/international collaborations.

External standing: Our group members were invited as speakers both at international meetings and national meetings (Universität Bern, Charles University, Prague, “ERC – a Success Story for Europe” pre-conference workshop, Budapest, University of Debrecen, and the Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő). We have active collaborations with E. Ostrander (NIH, Bethesda), P. Nemec (Charles University), L. Garamszegi (Donana Biology Station), N. Kolm and H. Temrin (Stockholm University), S. Urfer (University of Washington Medicine Pathology), J. Topál, A. Kis, A. Kettinger (Hu. Academy of Sciences), Z. Rónai (Semmelweis University), B. Egyed, T. Vellai, T. Kovács, T. Felföldi, I. Csabai, A. Andics, G Juhász, K. Kékesi (from several Departments of the Eötvös Loránd University), T. Hortobagyi (University of Szeged), Ö. Petneházy (University of Kaposvár), G. Barna, R. Bódizs (Semmelweis University), F. Pirrone, M. Albertini (University of Milan), Z. Virányi, F. Range, (Vetmeduni Vienna), M. Nagy (Max Planck Institute, Konstanz), G. Luijtelaar (Radboud University). The PI was invited as a guest editor of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience on “The Neurobiology of Human-Animal Bonding Research Topic”.

Conference organisation: The international conference “Canine Science Forum” was organised by the Host in 2018, the PI was invited to serve on the Advisory Board and also as a chair.

Education: 16 international student internships (from FR, IT, MEX, USA, NL, DE, PL, and TR) and one guest researcher from Argentina have carried out research for 1-5 months with our group. The PI has co/supervise/d 9 MSc/BSc students and 6 PhD students, one is from Morocco with a Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship, and another is from Brazil with a Brazilian state scholarship. The PI was invited as the opponent of four PhD theses and two times as a member of PhD defence committees.

Science policy: The PI was elected as a member of the Young Academy of Europe (a pan-European initiative of outstanding young scientists for networking, scientific exchange and science policy). She actively participated in surveying the problems of young Hungarian researchers, and submitted a publication to the journal “Hungarian Science” about the results of the survey. She was invited as a founding member of the Hungarian Young Academy of Sciences (the Academy will be formed in May/2019).

Grants: The PI has won an ERASMUS+ grant to establish cooperation with the National University of South Argentina, and to give a seminar there about dog cognition and ageing. She has also won DAAD grant for supporting a German students’ research in Hungary, a János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a scholarship from the ÚNKP-18-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities, and the prestigious L’ORÉAL-UNESCO “For Women in Science” award.

Dissemination: Both the launch of the ERC project (labelled as “Senior Family Dog Project”) and the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science award attracted high media attention in Hungary. In addition, through the Host’s press office, we have launched seven press releases, which were also distributed extensively through the media. Unfortunately, our Host does not have an international press office, therefore we could not launch press releases in English. However, our “brain training” and “sleep spindle” papers reached the English speaking general public as well. Altogether we have collected more than 20

Final results

By providing objective criteria (behavioural, physiological and genetic biomarkers) to assess and predict the ageing trajectory for specific individual dogs, we aim to help veterinarians to recognise the symptoms of pathological cognitive decline earlier, in order to initiate necessary counter actions. We have established a Canine Brain and Tissue Bank for supporting this aim with a unique pet dog body donation system for those owners, who, in agreement with their veterinarian, voluntarily offer their dog’s body after a medically reasoned euthanasia. The brain bank represents a unique opportunity to study the histological and molecular background of the cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS) in dogs, which is thought to be similar to Alzheimer’s disease in humans.
We aim to identify neural markers that are associated with cognitive ageing using non-invasive methodologies (fMRI, EEG). Our goal is to provide data regarding the resting state functional networks in the dog brain, creating region-specific age and stimulus sensitive curves, and then use these findings as a basis to create neural markers to monitor functional brain ageing. We are the first to successfully analyse sleep spindles and resting-state networks in dogs in a non-invasive setup.
Increasing the healthspan of ageing dogs contributes indirectly to the welfare of the owner and decreases veterinary expenses. By describing novel, sociocognitive aspects of the ageing phenotype in detail, we may also facilitate the use of dogs as a natural model for human senescence, including the development and application of new pharmaceutical interventions.

Website & more info

More info: https://familydogproject.elte.hu/senior-family-dog-project/.