Chronic neurodegeneration might also be a target for EPO therapy as EPO and its analogs can counteract degenerative processes in experimental models of Parkinson disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by inducing anti-oxidant enzymes, inhibiting apoptosis and stimulating axonal regeneration [78,153-155]. The gene discussed is EPO; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.