SMAD3 and Alzheimer disease: The modulation exerted by TGFβ1 is mediated by the activation of Smad3, which is down regulated in AD patients (Colangelo et al., 2002) and aged mice (Tichauer et al., 2014), and the activation of ERK (Saud et al., 2005), which also appears to be neuroprotective under certain conditions (Zhu et al., 2002, 2004).