title: Probing the secrets of Alzheimer's disease using human-induced pluripotent stem cell technology.
abstract: Our understanding of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still incomplete and, as a result, we lack effective therapies. Reprogramming to generate human-induced pluripotent stem cells provides a new approach to the generation of human neurons that carry the genomes of people with familial or sporadic AD. Differentiation of such stem cells to human neurons is already providing new insights into AD and molecular pathways that may provide new targets for effective therapy. These pathways include typical amyloid response pathways, as well as pathways leading from altered behavior of amyloid precursor protein to the elevated phosphorylation of tau protein. There is also a need for standardization of models so that isogenic lines differing only in the familial AD mutation can be compared.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA, lgoldstein@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Lawrence S B
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Sol
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reyna
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Woodruff
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*