ABSTRACT
The study of vertebrate models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has proceeded for over a decade and recently invertebrate animal models have been increasingly deployed with the aim of providing new insights into the disease mechanism and to begin the search for new possible routes to therapy. Although there is no animal model that fully mimics AD, a number of important transgenic animal models are available with which to investigate molecular aspects of the disease. Thus, the GAL4-upstream activation sequences system permits targeted expression of amyloid peptides into selected neurons and this has been exploited to advantage in generating AD fly models. Understanding changes in ion channel function in response to amyloid peptides is important in terms of understanding the cellular neuropathology of AD. The availability of green fluorescent protein-tagged neuronal lines in Drosophila means that it is possible to pursue electrophysiological recordings and calcium imaging measurements on single defined types within a population of cultured neurons.
