The molecule that has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease causes many hallmarks of the disorder in monkey brains, suggesting the potential for a primate model of the disease.

Amyloid-β forms plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Fernanda De Felice at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Douglas Munoz at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, and their colleagues injected small aggregates of amyloid-β into the brains of macaques. They found that the molecule ended up in key cognitive centres, where they noticed many of the same changes seen in diseased brains, such as the loss of neuronal connections.

Alzheimer's research relies heavily on rodent models, and these findings could lead to the development of better animal models of the disease, the authors say.

J. Neurosci. 34, 13629–13643 (2014)