title: Behavioural and cellular effects of exogenous amyloid-β peptides in rodents.
abstract: A better understanding of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the development of disease modifying therapies are some of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. One of the core features of AD are amyloid plaques composed of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides. The first hypothesis proposed that cognitive deficits are linked to plaque-development and transgenic mice have been generated to study this link, thereby providing a good model to develop new therapeutic approaches. Since later it was recognised that in AD patients the cognitive deficit is rather correlated to soluble amyloid levels, consequently, a new hypothesis appeared associating the earliest amyloid toxicity to these soluble species. The purpose of this review is to give a summary of behavioural and cellular data obtained after soluble Aβ peptide administration into rodents' brain, thereby showing that this model is a valid tool to investigate AD pathology when no plaques are present. Additionally, this method offers an excellent, efficient model to test compounds which could act at such early stages of the disease.
authors: In Vivo Pharmacology, Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH, Eckenheimer Landstrasse 100, D-60318 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. caroline.chambon@yahoo.de
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Chambon
authors: Nico
authors: N
authors: Wegener
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Gravius
authors: Wojciech
authors: W
authors: Danysz
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology*; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D008845:Microinjections; D012377:Rodentia
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides