Recent advances in transgenic model development for Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The lack of a small animal model that represents major features of Alzheimer's disease has long been considered a major handicap for research and drug development. Transgenic technology has been used to introduce potential pathological start points as well as established genetic causes of the disease to trigger pathogenesis in a small animal model. This review describes various approaches, discusses the available transgenic mouse models and compares their similarities and differences, and their applicability for the testing of drugs aiming at a causal treatment of the disease.