New, Improved Mouse Model of Human Alzheimer’s May Enable Drug Discovery

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have developed a transgenic mouse that carries a human gene known to increase risk of Alzheimer’s 15-fold. This new mouse mimics the genetics of the human disease more closely than any of the dozen existing mouse models and may prove more useful in the development of candidate drugs to prevent or treat the disease.

The new mouse model provides new evidence for the earliest cause of Alzheimer’s, researchers report in a study to be published in the December issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and now available online.

The model is a cross between an existing transgenic Alzheimer’s mouse and a mouse carrying fully human apoE, a gene that in one of its three variants, apoE4, is the greatest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s in the human population.

(Source: tigger.uic.edu)