When mice were pretreated with the P2X7 receptor antagonist BBG in a dose previously shown to be protective in animal models of HD [20] and spinal cord injury [17], endogenous DA levels were depleted by MPTP compared to saline-treated mice (Fig. 4E) similar to what was observed in mice treated only with MPTP (Figure 4A). The gene discussed is P2RX7; the disease is Huntington disease.