Designing Animal Models of Alzheimer's Disease with Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)Transgenes.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) and Alzheimer's disease are irrevocably linked, as APP is cleaved to form the Aβ peptides that are the major components of amyloid plaques. One of the most resilient hypotheses about the cause of AD centers on the Aβ peptide; all genetic causes and risk factors can be fitted into a general "amyloid cascade hypothesis," which maintains that all pathology is initiated by an abnormal accumulation of Aβ amyloid (1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]