A new hope for dogs with dementia: USF Health researchers explore gene therapy

The moment Kate Heath saw her 12 year old pug, Ivy, sitting silently and staring at a wall, she knew something was wrong.

Ivy's condition progressed. She began experiencing vision changes, stopped sleeping through the night, started wandering into unusual corners of the apartment and often appeared lost.

Ivy's condition progressed. She began experiencing vision changes, hearing loss, stopped sleeping through the night, started wandering into unusual corners of the apartment and often appeared lost.

Heath found herself constantly watching Ivy to make sure she didn't get hurt.

There was little her veterinarian could do for the once-affectionate rescue pug beyond managing her symptoms of dementia.

Now, USF Health researchers are trying to offer new hope for dog owners facing similar circumstances.

Aurelie Joly, a research associate in the Morsani College of Medicine Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, is working to advance a gene therapy to treat canine cognitive decline, a condition similar in many ways to Alzheimer's disease in humans.

Existing treatments for dogs primarily address symptoms such as anxiety and behavioral changes rather than the underlying disease.

Joly says that studying cognitive decline in dogs could help advance therapies for humans because dogs develop the condition naturally as they get older, potentially providing important insights for future Alzheimer's research.

"They actually are a better model for the human disease because they get it spontaneously while they age," Joly said.

Joly's research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Florida High Tech Corridor's Early-Stage Innovation Fund. The funding is helping her advance the gene therapy toward veterinary studies and, ultimately, commercialization.

The project is being advanced through Blue Zone Therapeutics, a company Joly co-founded with colleagues Kevin Nash, PhD, Christian Brechot, MD, PhD, and Marselina Levis-Rabi, to help move the technology from the laboratory toward real-world veterinary applications.

While the therapy has shown promise in previous animal studies, moving it to canine studies will require significantly larger amounts of the treatment and new ways to measure its effectiveness in dogs. The newly-awarded funds will help Joly address those challenges as she works to move the technology toward future veterinary studies and bring it to market.

Joly is exploring a gene therapy that uses a modified, non-disease-causing virus as a delivery vehicle to provide genetic instructions into brain cells. Instead of administering medication repeatedly, Joly says those cells produce a protective protein that helps shield brain cells from damage.

"It's like a mini factory inside the body that continuously produces a beneficial protein after a single treatment," Joly said. "The protein reduces oxidative stress, protects cells from damage and functions almost like a sunscreen for your cells."

Oxidative stress is a form of cellular damage that accumulates with aging and has been linked to neurodegenerative diseases. The protective protein helps counter that damage and protects brain tissue from the effects of aging.

Joly connected with Heath, an advisor and mentor through Embarc Collective, whose personal experience caring for Ivy reinforced the need for treatment options for canine cognitive decline. That connection, along with support from USF Innovation & Commercialization, USF Connect and the Florida High Tech Corridor, is helping move the technology toward commercialization - a step that could ultimately give dog owners like Heath access to treatments capable of slowing cognitive decline.

"If I thought there was anything I could do to avoid or arrest her decline, I would have done it," Heath said.

Instead, she found herself navigating a condition with few answers and no real available treatments. After consulting with multiple veterinarians, she found herself making one of the hardest decisions of her life. Ivy passed away in February 2024.

"The vets would tell me to my face, 'Dog dementia is a thing, but there's really no treatment for it. There's nothing you can do about it. It just comes with old age.' Anybody who's lived this will tell you it is a very real thing and a very real problem," Heath said.

Joly anticipates that veterinary development could move faster than human drug development, ultimately improving the quality of life for aging pets and their owners.