PPARGC1A and Alzheimer disease: In another study, delivering the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC1-α) gene using a modified virus to mice brain cells reduced the development of AD, and the treated mice showed better memory, no loss of brain cells in the hippocampus and had very few amyloid plaques after four months of injection (Katsouri et al. 2016).