Our furry best friends are often our world, and when they fall ill, we feel their pain. That鈥檚 when we look for help from the veterinarians and researchers at the 嘿嘿视频 School of Veterinary Medicine.
And what if studying diseases in our pets could also help us? Humans and dogs have a lot more in common than you may think. In fact, , versus only 67 percent for mice. Many of these same DNA sequences are grouped around developmental genes, ones that can lead to disorders if something goes wrong in translation.
Veterinary researchers at 嘿嘿视频 have been exploring new study methods for diseases in their canine patients. They hope that the new findings can improve the lives of their animal patients and eventually translate into new methods to treat humans.
1. Short-legged dogs share a similar gene for dwarfism
Sure, it鈥檚 entertaining to watch dachshunds race in the annual with their short legs, but those features might be causing them extreme pain in other areas.
Researchers have found that dachshunds, French bulldogs, Pekingese and other short-legged dogs are more likely to experience back pain and limb paralysis, unpleasant symptoms of an intervertebral disc disease.
Because treatment for the disease can be costly and risky, veterinarian researchers investigated its cause and discovered a that caused both the short legs and intervertebral disc disease.
They identified an important retrogene involved in the development of the dogs鈥 structure. This same retrogene is found in humans and when altered by the mutation, can lead to dwarfism in humans.
The discovery could affect how we study degenerative disc diseases in people.
2. Some brain tumors can be common to dogs and people
Boxers, bulldogs and Boston terriers have more in common than the first letter of their breed names. These breeds are more susceptible to developing a specific brain tumor, the , which causes a decline in brain functions. The tumor grows out of infected that provide nutrients and oxygen to neurons in the brain.
Veterinary geneticist Danika Bannasch and her research partner Peter Dickinson, a veterinary neurologist, , asking why they鈥檙e so prevalent in only certain breeds of dogs.
They identified three gene candidates associated with glioma development and made a huge breakthrough in suggesting that humans and dogs share a common mechanism for how the glioma develops from cell to tumor.
Spontaneous gliomas are the most common form of malignant brain tumors in humans and occur at a similar frequency in canines, so neuro-oncologists are interested in a possible link in the development and treatment of gliomas in both people and dogs.
鈥淐ancer is cancer,鈥 Dickinson says. 鈥淭he big pathways altered in humans are likely to be altered in dogs as well.鈥
3. Veterinarians test immune therapy in clinical trial
Veterinarian and radiation oncologist Michael Kent and his research partner Arta Monjazeb, a fellow radiation oncologist, that shrinks lung cancer in dog patients, and they will soon be introducing the test to animal clinical trials. Kent also conducts stem cell research and has a new paper coming out soon on using a dog鈥檚 natural killer cells, immune cells that reject infections, to attack osteosarcoma, a bone cancer similarly found in humans.
鈥淔or a long time, we鈥檝e looked at humans to see how to treat dogs,鈥 Kent said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to do a little bit of the reverse now.鈥
It鈥檚 appropriate to use dogs as the comparison research animal because they鈥檙e often susceptible to the same carcinogenic environmental factors as humans and can get cancer spontaneously like humans do.
4. Cleft palate research for humans grows thanks to canine study
Humans may not use their mouths to chew on bones the ways dogs do, but human and canine mouths are still similar enough to be subject to the same diseases. , a facial malfunction that splits open the upper lip, affects one in 1,500 human babies annually and is also found in the jaws of Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers.
Researchers have identified the that causes the form of cleft palate found in dogs. As common as cleft palate is in humans, it isn鈥檛 completely understood, and veterinary researchers hope that their discovery can provide the first dog model for the facial defect.
Veterinary geneticist Danika Bannasch found the mutation by conducting a genome-wide study of the particular retrievers that have the naturally occurring cleft palate. The dogs had shortened lower jaws, similar to the humans who have , a type of cleft palate.
鈥淭his discovery provides novel insight into the genetic cause of a form of cleft palate through the use of a less conventional animal model,鈥 says Bannasch. 鈥淚t also demonstrates that dogs have multiple genetic causes of cleft palate that we anticipate will aid in the identification of additional candidate genes relevant to human cleft palate.鈥
By studying the genetic similarities in animals, researchers can make important strides in understanding how diseases begin and how to cure them. Connect with the to read about more breakthroughs in animal research.
Maria Akhter 鈥18, an economics and comparative literature double major, is an intern for 嘿嘿视频 . She enjoys using writing to connect with her campus community.