New developments in quest for Alzheimer's model

Researchers have made several false starts in developing animal models for Alzheimer's disease. Last week, GenPharm International Inc. and Athena Neurosciences Inc. reported separately the development of new models expressing amyloid precursor protein (APP).

GenPharm published data showing successful introduction into mice of a yeast artificial chromosome containing the human gene for APP. As detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the entire human gene was engineered into a construct that is the functioning equivalent of a yeast chromosome and spliced by a method called co-lipofection into embryonic stem cells of mice, which were then incorporated into mouse embryos. The resulting chimeric mice demonstrated abundant expression of the human gene, with mRNA for human APP at levels comparable to that seen for transcription of the mice's own APP gene...