BAK1 and neurodegenerative disease: It is remarkable that loss of Bax/Bak fully protect cells from serum starvation and terminal autophagy-dependent cell death, suggesting that inhibitors of monomeric Bax/Bak could be selectively used in preventing or reducing pathology and cell loss associated with selective degenerative disease states during aging while not inhibiting the protective effects ascribed to the autophagic process (Muller et al., 2017).