In the rat brain, VGF is expressed in areas involved in the regulation of feeding, reproduction, stress responsiveness and general homeostasis (Salton et al., 2000; Levi et al., 2004; Razzoli et al., 2012), and VGF-derived peptides have been found significantly decreased in some neurodegenerative diseases (Carrette et al., 2003; Ruetschi et al., 2005; Cocco et al., 2010). The gene discussed is VGF; the disease is neurodegenerative disease.