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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative dementia characterized by amyloid plaque accumulation, synapse/dendrite loss, and cognitive impairment. Transgenic mice expressing mutant forms of amyloid-β precursor protein (AβPP) and presenilin-1 (PS1) recapitulate several aspects of this disease and provide a useful model system for studying elements of AD progression. AβPP/PS1 mice have been previously shown to exhibit behavioral deficits and amyloid plaque deposition between 4-9 months of age. We crossed AβPP/PS1 animals with mice of a mixed genetic background (C57BL/6 × 129/SvJ) and investigated the development of AD-like features in the resulting outcrossed mice. The onset of memory-based behavioral impairment is delayed considerably in outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice relative to inbred mice on a C57BL/6 background. While inbred AβPP/PS1 mice develop deficits in radial-arm water maze performance and novel object recognition as early as 8 months, outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice do not display defects until 18 months. Within the forebrain, we find that inbred AβPP/PS1 mice have significantly higher amyloid plaque burden at 12 months than outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice of the same age. Surprisingly, inbred AβPP/PS1 mice at 8 months have low plaque burden, suggesting that plaque burden alone cannot explain the accompanying behavioral deficits. Analysis of AβPP processing revealed that elevated levels of soluble Aβ correlate with the degree of behavioral impairment in both strains. Taken together, these findings suggest that animal behavior, amyloid plaque deposition, and AβPP processing are sensitive to genetic differences between mouse strains., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Introduction: Recent studies have shown that several strains of transgenic Alzheimer's disease (AD) mice overexpressing the amyloid precursor protein (APP) have cortical hyperexcitability, and their results have suggested that this aberrant network activity may be a mechanism by which amyloid-ß (Aß) causes more widespread neuronal dysfunction. Specific anticonvulsant therapy reverses memory impairments in various transgenic mouse strains, but it is not known whether reduction of epileptiform activity might serve as a surrogate marker of drug efficacy for memory improvement in AD mouse models. Methods: Transgenic AD mice (APP/PS1 and 3xTg-AD) were chronically implanted with dural electroencephalography electrodes, and epileptiform activity was correlated with spatial memory function and transgene-specific pathology. The antiepileptic drugs ethosuximide and brivaracetam were tested for their ability to suppress epileptiform activity and to reverse memory impairments and synapse loss in APP/PS1 mice. Results: We report that in two transgenic mouse models of AD (APP/PS1 and 3xTg-AD), the presence of spike-wave discharges (SWDs) correlated with impairments in spatial memory. Both ethosuximide and brivaracetam reduce mouse SWDs, but only brivaracetam reverses memory impairments in APP/PS1 mice. Conclusions: Our data confirm an intriguing therapeutic role of anticonvulsant drugs targeting synaptic vesicle protein 2A across AD mouse models. Chronic ethosuximide dosing did not reverse spatial memory impairments in APP/PS1 mice, despite reduction of SWDs. Our data indicate that SWDs are not a reliable surrogate marker of appropriate target engagement for reversal of memory dysfunction in APP/PS1 mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]