Japanese scientist has invented an injection which could extend the life of Maine Coons

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The Maine Coon cat, it is said, can be predisposed to chronic kidney disease (CKD). Most elderly cats can develop CKD and it is one of the most common old-age health problems which can lead to a shortened lifespan or perhaps euthanasia at a veterinarian's if the condition is sufficiently advanced.

I take my information about Maine Coons, Abyssinians and Persians as being perhaps predisposed to developing CKD from a veterinary website called Shallowford Animal Hospital. It's based in North Carolina, USA.

Bearing this in mind, it's useful, I think, to mention a recent development in the treatment and prevention of CKD which comes from Japan.

Image: MikeB under license.

Doctor Toru Mikazaki, and immunology specialist at the University of Tokyo discovered, according to the NEXT SHARK website, a 'protein apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM)' which helps the kidneys flush out toxins using immunoglobulin antibodies.

He believes that AIM is present in the blood of many animals but he noticed that they weren't functioning properly in domestic cats which prevents crucial waste being removed from cats which in turn makes them susceptible to kidney failure.

It's his goal to create an injection which can rectify this defect in the working of the AIM in cats. If it does work, he has the astonishing goal of permitting domestic cats to live to the age of 30 rather than the current approximate 16+ years.

This sounds implausible and it probably is but a lot of domestic cats, as mentioned, die of chronic kidney disease. He appears to have got to the root cause of the problem but it might not be the complete picture.

In the last part of his research, he received $2 million of funding from donations from cat lovers worldwide. Having received the funding he decided to resign from his university position and focus solely on developing the AIM treatment.

He wants the medicine to be affordable and it is expected that the injection will become commercially available next year in 2025.

It has shown promising results and therefore I would hope that cat caregivers can have reasonable expectations that when the almost inevitable happens and their elderly cat develops kidney disease they will have some sort of treatment at that time and in the years ahead.

I am one of those caregivers as my cat is about 8 years old. He is fit at the moment.

RELATED: Fluvoxamine (Luvox) given to an aggressive Maine Coon cat which cured him. Note: I am not a fan of drug treatments for behaviour problems but sometimes they might be necessary as per vet advice.

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Please excuse the occasional typo due to preparing these articles at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I don't have a proof reader.
Location: 7-chōme-3-1 Hongō, Bunkyo City, Tokyo 113-8654, Japan

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