Patent 7550649 was granted and assigned to Taisho Pharmaceutical Co. on June, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An object of the present invention is to provide a model animal of Parkinson's disease comprising an α-synuclein gene introduced therein. The present invention provides a transgenic non-human mammal or a portion thereof, wherein an α-synuclein gene is introduced and the gene is expressed in neurons, and the number of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantial nigra is significantly decreased as compared with that of a wild-type animal.