Patent 7393994 was granted and assigned to Regents of the University of California on July, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Lewy body disease are the most commonly found neurodegenerative disorders in the elderly. The invention is a transgenic mouse that contains two transgenes, human α-synuclein and human amyloid precursor protein, which are responsible for the formation of the neuritic plaques, Lewy bodies and neurodegeneration seen in the above mentioned diseases. The transgenic mouse is an accurate model for disease by both functional and pathological assays.