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Review
. 2023 May 19:15:1119810.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1119810. eCollection 2023.

Progressive sleep disturbance in various transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease

Victor J Drew  1 , Chanung Wang  2 , Tae Kim  1
Affiliations
Review

Progressive sleep disturbance in various transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease

Victor J Drew et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia. The relationship between AD and sleep dysfunction has received increased attention over the past decade. The use of genetically engineered mouse models with enhanced production of amyloid beta (Aβ) or hyperphosphorylated tau has played a critical role in the understanding of the pathophysiology of AD. However, their revelations regarding the progression of sleep impairment in AD have been highly dependent on the mouse model used and the specific techniques employed to examine sleep. Here, we discuss the sleep disturbances and general pathology of 15 mouse models of AD. Sleep disturbances covered in this review include changes to NREM and REM sleep duration, bout lengths, bout counts and power spectra. Our aim is to describe in detail the severity and chronology of sleep disturbances within individual mouse models of AD, as well as reveal broader trends of sleep deterioration that are shared among most models. This review also explores a variety of potential mechanisms relating Aβ accumulation and tau neurofibrillary tangles to the progressive deterioration of sleep observed in AD. Lastly, this review offers perspective on how study design might impact our current understanding of sleep disturbances in AD and provides strategies for future research.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; amyloid beta; mouse model; sleep deterioration; tau.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of sleep-regulating regions implicated in Alzheimer’s disease sleep pathology: This figure presents a mouse brain schematic, derived from an extensive review of literature on sleep research in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The diagram highlights the relevant brain regions and their associated AD pathologies, specifically amyloid-beta and tau pathologies, accompanied by corresponding references. The table provides a comprehensive summary of sleep impairments correlated with each identified brain region.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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