Probing sporadic and familial Alzheimer’s disease using induced pluripotent stem cells

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell cultures are being used as models for various genetic diseases, including Parkinson's disease and diabetes. Alzheimer's disease seems an unlikely candidate for such a technique, because it can take decades for the disease to manifest in patients. But here, Lawrence Goldstein and colleagues provide evidence that iPS cell technology can be used to study phenotypes that are relevant to familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Patient-derived fibroblasts were reprogrammed as iPS cells and differentiated into neurons expressing various biochemical markers of Alzheimer's disease, including elevated amyloid- secretion. Treatment of neurons with a -secretase inhibitor, a type of drug considered a candidate for Alzheimer's therapy, significantly reduced both amyloid- and phospho-tau levels.