TAC1 Gene Therapy in the Gut to Reduce Long-Term Memory Loss in Tg4-42 Alzheimer Diseased Mice: A Research Proposal

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that mainly affects a large percentage of the older adult population. AD can cause many problems, most notably long-term memory (LTM) loss. Many studies have observed a decreased level of substance P (SP) in the hippocampus of individuals with AD. In this paper, we propose a novel strategy to limit AD-related decline of LTM using probiotics transformed with SP. These transformed bacteria will contain varying concentrations of SP and will be injected into three different segments of the proximal colon in AD mouse models. LTM will be measured through Morris Water Maze (MWM) and Barnes Maze (BM) tests over three months to examine improvements in spatial memory. It is anticipated that this experiment will demonstrate that increased concentrations of SP in the proximal colon will result in the greatest reduction in LTM loss in AD individuals. This experiment will establish a new therapeutic option for AD individuals to slow the progression of LTM loss.