A Social Stimulation Paradigm to Ameliorate Memory Deficit in Alzheimer's Disease.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses a global health threat, progressively robbing patients of their memory and cognitive abilities. While it is recognized that meaningful social contact can alleviate the symptoms of dementia in AD patients, the precise mechanisms by which social stimulation mitigates AD symptoms remain poorly understood. We found that social interaction with novel mice, also known as novel social, simulated meaningful socializing. Therefore, we developed the multiple novel social (MNS) stimulation paradigm to train AD model mice and found that MNS effectively alleviated cognitive deficits in AD mice. This discovery not only opens up a new avenue for investigating the relationship between social stimulation and Alzheimer's disease but also lays the groundwork for delving into the underlying mechanisms, thereby providing crucial theoretical support for developing novel strategies to treat Alzheimer's disease. Key features • Designing a new social stimulation method to simulate meaningful social interactions in daily life. • The MNS stimulation protocol spans 14 days, with one novel mouse introduced to the subject mice each day. • The subjects were 2.5-month-old FAD^4T mice, simulating patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). • Results of behavioral tests confirm the efficacy of MNS in reducing cognitive deficits in the AD model. This protocol is used in: J Neurosci (2024), DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1689-23.2024.