QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF THE EXPRESSION OF TWO GENES IN THE CORETX AND CEREBELLUM OF A MOUSE MODEL OF JUVENILE ALZHEIMER’S

Abstract

There is a continuing effort in order to connect the two neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s Disease and Niemann-Pick Type C Disease (NPC1) “Juvenile Alzheimer’s”. Here in this study, we attempted to determine if there was a connection through the gene expression in inflammatory genes, CD14 and ETS-1, in a NPC1 mouse model, Npc1nmf164, using quantitative real time PCR. Hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) is reported to provide a beneficial effect on NPC1, and there was interest in seeing if HPβCD treatment could return the expression levels to wildtype levels. Instead, only a significant decrease of the CD14 and ETS-1 in cerebellar tissue of untreated NPC1 affected mice (when compared to wildtype levels), and no significant difference for the treated, affected mice was seen. CD14 p value = 0.026, and ETS-1 p value = 0.014. There was no significant difference found in cortex tissue for either CD14 or ETS-1.