De Bastiani and colleagues analyzed putative analogies and discrepancies between the transcriptomes of three mouse models, namely, 5xFAD, APP/PS1 and human Aβ knocked-in, as well as those of early- and late-onset sporadic cases of AD (De Bastiani et al. bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.09.447404). Here, APP is linked to Alzheimer disease.