Patent ID: 7186881

Claim:
A method for testing a compound for an effect on an Alzheimer's disease marker comprising: (a) administering the compound to be tested to a transgenic mouse, or neuronal cells derived from the transgenic mouse, wherein the transgenic mouse has a nucleic acid construct stably incorporated into the genome, wherein the construct comprises a promoter for expression of the construct in a mouse cell, and a region encoding an Aβ-containing protein, wherein the promoter is operatively linked to the region; wherein the region encoding an Aβ-containing protein comprises DNA encoding an APP protein selected from the group consisting of APP695, APP751 and APP770 comprising at least one point mutation associated with a familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD), (b) detecting or measuring synaptophysin as the Alzheimer's disease marker, such that any difference between the synaptophysin marker in the transgenic mouse or in the neuronal cells derived therefrom, and the synaptophysin marker in a transgenic mouse or in neuronal cells derived therefrom to which the compound has not been administered, is observed; wherein an observed difference in the synaptophysin marker indicates that the compound has an effect on the synaptophysin marker.