Animal Models for Neurodegenerative Diseases: An Introduction to AD and PD Mouse Models

Neurodegenerative diseases are the progressive deficiencies of neurons in specific brain regions, which threatens the quality of patients’ lives. Many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are also characterized by protein aggregation in the CNS which can lead to neuronal degeneration and death. However, the precise etiology of these diseases is still not clear, and there are significant unmet medical needs. To better understand the mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, animal models are widely used in basic research and preclinical studies. These models include genetically engineered transgenic models as well as induced models via surgical or chemical manipulations. To meet the demand of the market and biomedical research, GemPharmatech has successfully generated several mouse models for the study of AD, PD, HD, and ALS. These mouse models will support the R&D effort to explore the disease mechanisms and develop potential therapeutics and strategies for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

Topics covered in this webinar include:

• A brief introduction to neurodegenerative diseases

• Characterization of a novel AD mouse model: FAD4T

• Discussion of the SNCA A53T transgenic mouse model which simulates PD-like pathologies

• Discussion of a mouse model with a cell type-specific knock-out of the mtDNA regulatory gene Tfam in dopaminergic neurons which leads to PD-like phenotype