Alzheimer’s disease: a tale of two diseases?

Sporadic late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (SLOAD) and familial early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (FEOAD) associated with dominant mutations in APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2, are thought to represent a spectrum of the same disorder based on near identical behavioral and histopathological features. Hence, FEOAD transgenic mouse models have been used in past decades as a surrogate to study SLOAD pathogenic mechanisms and as the gold standard to validate drugs used in clinical trials. Unfortunately, such research has yielded little output in terms of therapeutics targeting the disease’s development and progression. In this short review, we interrogate the widely accepted view of one, dimorphic disease through the prism of the Bmi1(+/–) mouse model and the distinct chromatin signatures observed between SLOAD and FEOAD brains.