APP and amyloidosis: As previously described [28], APP/PS1 mice transduced with rAAV2-IL-1β showed significant reductions in hippocampal amyloid plaques compared to mice treated with rAAV2-Phe, as determined by immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis using both 6E10 staining and MX04 (Fig. 1b), and IL-1β reduced fibrillar and total amyloid plaque burden regardless of sex (Additional file 1).