C. elegans models of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases: lessons from transgenic worm models of Alzheimer's disease.
Caenorhabditis elegans has been used to model aspects of a number of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. These models have typically involved the transgenic expression of disease-associated human proteins. Here I describe my laboratory's specific experience engineering C. elegans models of Alzheimer's disease, and give a general consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of these C. elegans models. The type of insights that might be gained from using these (relatively) simple models are highlighted. In particular, I consider the potential these models have for uncovering common and unique fundamental toxic mechanisms underlying human neurodegenerative diseases.
Link
Christopher D
CD
Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA. linkc@colorado.edu
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D016875:tau Proteins