Our unpublished data demonstrate that GPR17 plays a similar role in other models of central nervous system neurodegenerative disease such as spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis (manuscripts in preparation); thus, GPR17 may represents a sensor of local injury that is activated upon different kinds of lesions independently of the cause at the basis of damage. The gene discussed is GPR17; the disease is early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease.