Man’s best friend in life and death: scientific perspectives and challenges of dog brain banking

Abstract

Biobanking refers to the systematic collection, storage, and distribution of pre- or post-mortem biological samples derived from volunteer donors. The demand for high-quality human specimens is clearly demonstrated by the number of newly emerging biobanking facilities and large international collaborative networks. Several animal species are relevant today in medical research; therefore, similar initiatives in comparative physiology could be fruitful. Dogs, in particular, are gaining increasing attention in translational research on complex phenomena, like aging, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, biobanks gathering and storing dog biological materials together with related data could play a vital role in translational and veterinary research projects. To achieve these aims, a canine biobank should meet the same standards in sample quality and data management as human biobanks and should rely on well-designed collaborative networks between different professionals and dog owners. While efforts to create dog biobanks could face similar financial and technical challenges as their human counterparts, they can widen the spectrum of successful collaborative initiatives towards a better picture of dogs’ physiology, disease, evolution, and translational potential. In this review, we provide an overview about the current state of dog biobanking and introduce the “Canine Brain and Tissue Bank” (CBTB)—a new, large-scale collaborative endeavor in the field.

Genome scanning of behavioral selection in a canine olfactory detection breeding cohort

“…It will be interesting to see if closely related breeds, such as Golden and Flat Coated Retrievers, or more distantly related working dog breeds like German Shorthaired Pointers carry the risk alleles we mapped on chr1 and chr13 and can thus be used for fine mapping 43 . Alternatively, brain eQTL data for Labrador Retrievers could reveal if any genes in the intervals have differential expression associated with that haplotype 44 . Whereas that requires postmortem samples, it is also possible to validate mapped loci behaviorally, especially where both risk and non-risk alleles are common.…”

Poly(A) RNA sequencing reveals age-related differences in the prefrontal cortex of dogs

“…All dogs had been euthanized for medical reasons. The cadavers of the animals were donated by their owners to the Canine Brain and Tissue Bank [ 38 ]. This biobank contains the brains and other tissue samples (e.g., fur, muscle) together with medical reports and behavioral test results (if available) of the dogs, which had been offered by their owners for scientific purposes.…”

“…On the other hand, it is challenging to collect tissue samples from companion dogs as this would usually require invasive approaches. Some recent initiatives of dog transcriptomic investigations have relied on canine biobanks to collect tissues from companion dogs postmortem [35][36][37][38].…”

Understanding autism spectrum disorders with animal models: applications, insights, and perspectives

“…Several studies have proposed that domestic animal models are complementary to traditional rodent models. For example, the dog is an innovative and unique model for many human neuropsychiatric diseases, including ASD ( Bunford et al, 2017 ; Sándor et al, 2021 ). The advantages of dog models include: (a) significant inter-individual differences in social cognitive performance in dogs; (b) greater phenotypic similarity between dogs and humans than between rodents and humans; (c) symptoms that are functionally similar to the human condition; and (d) similar causes in dogs than in rodents ( Topál et al, 2019 ).…”