First Domestic Production of Dementia Pigs... A New Step for Dementia Research
First Domestic Production of Dementia Pigs... A New Step for Dementia Research
- Seoul National University research team produces pigs for dementia research
- The brain of a 2-year old pigs similar to that of Alzheimer dementia patient
- Production/activities/visual analysis on dementia pigs, a world-class technology
Korea‘s research team was successful in producing ‘pigs for dementia research’ with similar symptoms of Alzheimer dementia patients.
This prepares pigs, very similar to humans, to become a major subject in dementia research, and helps to unravel the secrets of dementia, which we even do not know the primary causes.
70% of dementia is Alzheimer dementia, which has recently surged as a social issue. Alzheimer dementia occurs. when a protein called ‘amyloid’ is excessively piled up.
Seoul National University research team (Professors Sun Ha Paek of neurosurgery and Byungchun Lee of veterinary medicine) was successful in creating an ‘Alzheimer dementia transgenic pig’ with amyloid-related genes.
The research team produced transgenic team through cloning. Transgene is defined as artificially injecting exterior genes and transforming an animal‘s genetic characteristic. If the characteristics change, the descendents acquire the same genes. The research team transplanted amyloid precursor protein (APP), a prior substance to amyloid protein to the pig (surrogacy), and produce a transgenic pig that will express an excessive amyloid protein. In fact, the produced pig and all the descendants will have dementia.
By examining this pig for a long time, the 2-year old pig‘s PET-CT and MRI showed significant reduced glucose metabolism, ventriculomegaly, and cortical atrophy. These are classic symptoms of Alzheimers patients.
Dementia is a classic degenerative brain disease which the patients have skyrocketed recently (2010 260K -> 2013 410K). Dementia patients‘ cognitive intelligence and memory capacity gradually decrease; there are no clear discovered reasons why these symptoms occur.
Research uncovering dementia‘s source is mostly done with mice. However, illness characteristics displayed in rats show big differences of those of humans, and make clinical trials difficult.
However, pigs show longer life, similar illness patterns and genetic patterns, making them more effective in dementia‘s early diagnosis and treatment development research.
The research team used pigs to produce Alzheimer dementia transgenic pigs and progressing of the illness by videos. These pig production that will prepare a stunning base in future dementia research was patented. (Korean Patent Application 10-2015-0085879, 2015).
Professor Byungchun Lee said, “Dementia model development using transgenic pig with same genes will help early detection of dementia and treatment going forward.”
Professor Sun Ha Paek stated, “This experience, if applied to human illness models using mammals, will create a great basis in incurable brain diseases such as dementia and Parkinson‘s disease. We are continuously evaluating the pigs’ activities, and also developing Parkinson‘s diseases model pigs.”