Animal model of Alzheimer's disease induced by streptozotocin: New insights about cholinergic pathway.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is of multifactorial origin, and still presents several gaps regarding its development and progression. Disorders of the cholinergic system are well known to be involved in the pathogenesis of AD, characterized by increased acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and decreased acetyltransferase (ChAT) enzymatic activities. Late onset AD (LOAD) animal model induced by intracerebroventricular injection of streptozotocin (icv-STZ) showed promising results in this context, due to the similarity with the pathophysiology of human LOAD.