BDNF and brain ischemia: Johana et al. demonstrated that CDK5 silencing could give rise to an upregulation of BDNF and Tropomyosin Receptor kinase B, subsequently activating the downstream cascade proteins ERK and CREB in cerebral ischemia-induced neurodegeneration and motor dysfunction [129], suggesting a gene therapy to cerebral ischemia-related neurodegenerative diseases based on CDK5 silencing.