Could tears help detect cognitive decline in dogs and cats?

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A new review in Animals argues that tear film proteomics could become a practical, minimally invasive way to detect and monitor cognitive dysfunction and other neurodegenerative disorders in aging dogs and cats. The paper, by Dagmara Winiarczyk and Mateusz Winiarczyk, synthesizes existing canine and feline tear proteomics research and connects it to the broader biomarker push in veterinary neurology, where clinicians still lack validated, clinic-ready tests for cognitive decline. The authors position tears as an appealing sample because collection is simple and low stress, and prior veterinary studies have already shown that tear protein profiles can shift with systemic and ocular disease. (mdpi.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the review lands at a moment when the field is actively trying to move beyond diagnosis by history, questionnaires, and exclusion of other disease. New canine cognitive dysfunction guidelines published in JAVMA this year say there still aren’t commercially available biomarker tests for routine practice, even as blood- and CSF-based candidates such as neurofilament light chain are gaining traction in research. A tear-based assay would be attractive in general practice and senior wellness settings if it can be validated, especially for cats and dogs that won’t tolerate more invasive sampling. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

What to watch: The next step is whether prospective studies can show that specific tear biomarkers track with clinical cognitive scores, imaging, or established blood and CSF markers strongly enough to support real-world screening or monitoring. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)