Parkinson’s disease is the second largest neurodegenerative disease in the world after Alzheimer’s, and poses a serious threat to the health of middle-aged and elderly people. Li Xiaojiang and his collaborators from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences obtained 6 transgenic Parkinson’s disease macaques. This is the first successful preparation of a transgenic monkey model of Parkinson's disease in the world, and it provides an important animal model (Animal Models) for early pathogenesis research and early intervention and treatment of Parkinson's disease. The research results were published online in "Human Molecular Genetics" on December 31, 2014.
According to reports, the discovery and diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is often in the middle and late stages of the disease, so that the treatment effect is not satisfactory. However, due to the lack of ideal animal models in the study of the early pathological mechanism of Parkinson’s disease, little is known about the early pathogenesis and targeted treatment of the disease. Rhesus monkeys and humans are highly similar in neurophysiological structure and behavior, and are ideal experimental animals for studying neurological diseases.
Li Xiaojiang and others established the first rhesus monkey model of neurodegenerative disease (Huntington's disease) using transgenic method at Emory University in the United States in 2008. Using a similar genetic modification method, Li Xiaojiang's research group cooperated with the laboratory of Ji Weizhi, a researcher at the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedicine, and obtained 6 transgenic Parkinson’s disease macaques through 4 years of hard work. The oldest genetically modified monkey with Parkinson's disease (Parkinson's disease) began to show cognitive memory, fine motor impairment, anxiety and depression symptoms at the age of 2.5. These features are similar to the early clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease (Parkinson's disease) people before the movement disorder It fits very well.