Patent ID: 8252543

Claim:
A method for screening for a therapeutic agent for human Alzheimer's disease or memory and/or cognitive disorders comprising, (a) providing a mouse model for Alzheimer's disease, administering a candidate drug to the mouse, obtaining a sample of hippocampal brain tissue from the mouse, and detecting, in vitro, activation of STAT3 in the hippocampal brain tissue sample, wherein when STAT3 is activated a phosphorylated STAT3 protein is detected in hippocampal brain tissue sample of the mouse compared with hippocampal brain tissue sample of a control mouse; or (b) providing a brain hippocampus-derived primary neuronal cell, which is derived from a human with Alzheimer's disease or a mouse or rat model for Alzheimer's disease, culturing the primary neuronal cell in the presence of a candidate drug, and detecting activation of STAT3 in the cultured cells, wherein the activation of STAT3 protein is correlated with an increase in phosphorylated STAT3 protein in total STAT3 protein detected in cultured primary neuronal cells when compared with control cells; and selecting the candidate drug associated with activation of STAT3 in the mouse and/or the cultured primary cultured neuronal cells for testing in a human having Alzheimer's disease, a memory disorder, and/or a cognitive disorder to determine if the candidate drug has a therapeutic effect toward Alzheimer's disease, the memory disorder, and/or the cognitive disorder.