Aging African green monkeys manifest transcriptional, pathological, and cognitive hallmarks of human Alzheimer's disease

Autor: Yi Wang, Renee C Gentzel, Paige Cramer, Philip Manfre, Celina Zerbinatti, Kenneth Lodge, Jason M. Uslaner, Keith Q. Tanis, Joshua D. Vardigan, Brett Connolly, John J. Renger
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Neurobiology of aging. 64
ISSN: 1558-1497
Popis: While many preclinical models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been reported, none fully recapitulate the disease. In an effort to identify an appropriate preclinical disease model, we characterized age-related changes in 2 higher order species, the African green monkey (AGM) and the rhesus macaque. Gene expression profiles in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the visual cortex showed age-related changes in AGMs that are strikingly reminiscent of AD, whereas aged rhesus were most similar to healthy elderly humans. Biochemically, age-related changes in AGM cerebrospinal fluid levels of tau, phospho-tau, and amyloid beta were consistent with AD. Histologically, aged AGMs displayed pathological hallmarks of the disease, plaques, and 2 AGMs showed evidence of neurofibrillary tangle-like structures. We hypothesized and confirmed that AGMs have age-related cognitive deficits via a prefrontal cortex-dependent cognition test, and that symptomatic treatments that improve cognition in AD patients show efficacy in AGMs. These data suggest that the AGM could represent a novel and improved translational model to assist in the development of therapeutics for AD.
Databáze: OpenAIRE