Selecting a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease and cause of dementia. Significant strides toward understanding and developing therapies for AD have been supported by the use of transgenic mouse models of AD. Over the last two decades, a number of mouse models have been created to recapitulate the major neuropathological hallmarks of the disease, namely amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. These mice recapitulate many, although not all, of the key features of AD, and have been widely used in AD research. At the present time, there are numerous types of transgenic mice available for the study of AD, many of which have been characterized to some extent in terms of neuronal, neuropathological, and/or behavioral abnormalities. This repository of transgenic mice offers a wealth of opportunity to investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying AD, and the choice of mouse model for research should be guided by the specific questions to be answered. We provide here some considerations for selecting a mouse model of AD best suited to particular lines of investigation.