On 27 December, researchers from the United States published an article on a study introducing a new Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mouse model in the journal Prion.
Current clinical research on AD relies on traditional AD mouse models that usually have only one respectively a few genetic backgrounds. This composes a challenge for the interpretation of results, since investigations in this field have shown that the genetic background has a strong effect on the levels of the protein Amyloid-β associated with neurodegeneration.
Since there is a lack of research on the effect of the genetic background on cognitive performance, the scientists hypothesized that the genetic background also plays a role in modifying cognitive decline in these animal models.
For that purpose, the team combined an already established mouse model of AD with a genetically diverse reference panel to generate mice which were comparable in high-risk human mutations but whose other genomes were different.
After showing that the variation of the other genes modified the impact of human AD mutations, the team validated the model, demonstrating its overlap with human AD and introducing the model as a new resource for AD research.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.11.040