Amyloid-beta induces toxicity and cell death in human iPSC-derived neurons: alzheimer disease in vitro model

Alzheimer’s is a genetic chronic neurodegenerative disease that typically begins around the age of 60 and progressively impairs cognition and language. A key common hallmark is the accumulation of plaques containing β-amyloid that leads to synaptic failure and, eventually, neuronal death. In recent years, reproducing and studying the mechanisms behind Alzheimer’s disease’s (AD) pathology and β-amyloid plaques-dependent degeneration have been facilitated by the advent of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

This study describes a robust alzheimer’s disease in vitro model, in which treatment of iPSC-derived glutamatergic neurons with commercially available β-amyloid aggregates led to a quantifiable reduction of neuronal viability in line with patient pathology.