# A Novel Animal Model of Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH R21** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $442,750

## Abstract

Human clinical trials have failed to produce a disease modifying drug for treating late onset Alzheimer’s
disease (AD) and ineffectual animal models are partly to blame. Our proposal addresses the large unmet need
to produce an animal model of AD which will both increase our understanding of this disease as well as
provide a model for pre-clinical drug testing. Unlike past models that relied on over expression of mutant
genes from artificial promoters, we have used homologous recombination to create double and triple knock in
(KI) mice using human genes that play a large role in AD. Current strategies also do not incorporate aging in
their models which leaves out the single most important non-genetic risk factor in AD. In addition to aging we
are adding chronic exposure to a Western diet (another prominent risk factor in AD) to our mouse models
which also addresses the multifactorial nature of AD that is sorely lacking from current models. We have
successfully created human NL-F APP/APOE3 (and E4), plus human TAU/APOE3 (and E4) double KI mice
and recently APP/TAU/APOE3 (andE4) triple KI mice.
Our preliminary data shows that feeding the double APP/APOE KI mice a Western diet for 6 months around
midlife is insufficient to model AD as measured by amyloid beta burden, gliosis and synaptic markers. These
results prompted us to extend both the dietary exposure and age at sacrifice which make up our two aims: Aim
1: Determine whether lifelong HFD exposure is sufficient to produce characteristics of AD in the double KI
animal models, Aim 2: Determine whether lifelong HFD exposure is sufficient to produce characteristics of AD
in the triple KI animal models. All of our models will be exposed to a Western diet from 2-18 (and 24) months of
age, then phenotyped for biomarkers of AD (i.e. amyloid beta, abnormal tau, gliosis and neurodegeneration).
We also plan to examine the brain lipid profile of these mice as preliminary data show deficiencies in essential
fatty acids in the APOE4 mice. Thus, the hypothesis we plan to test is that APOE4 carriers are at increased
risk for AD due to insufficient uptake of essential fatty acids required for maintaining neuronal health. Most
importantly, if our ideas are correct, we will have produced an invaluable model of AD that the entire research
community can use to develop new treatments for AD.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9965032
- **Project number:** 1R21AG067340-01
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** William Kirby Gottschalk
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $442,750
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-05-15 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9965032

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9965032, A Novel Animal Model of Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease (1R21AG067340-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9965032. Licensed CC0.

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