Researchers at Eli Lilly and Athena Neurosciences have achieved a breakthrough in Alzheimer's disease research - the development of a transgenic mouse model of the disease - which should aid in the study of the course of the disease and the development of candidate drugs to treat it. Details of the project are published in Nature (February 9).
The absence of an animal model for Alzheimer's disease is continually raised by researchers as a primary reason for the slow progress in understanding the pathology. To date, investigators have been limited to studying brain tissue from patients who have died from Alzheimer's disease. In developing the mouse, the company researchers, with collaboration from the Scripps Research Institute, the University of California and the National Institute of Mental Health, transfected mouse embryo cells with an abnormal gene coding for amyloid precursor protein.
The APP gene occurs in all humans, but the abnormal variant used in the development of the transgenic mice is linked to one type of inherited-onset Alzheimer's disease. This gene was discovered by scientists at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, UK, which holds the patent rights and licenses the technology to Athena. The gene alters APP processing and increases the chance of beta-amyloid being deposited in AD-characteristic plaques in the brain.
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