NUP214 and Alzheimer disease: Then, consistent with data showing that spine loss in AD patients and mice models occur through a pathway involving the calcium-dependent phosphatase calcineurin (CaN), neurons isolated in the vicinity of plaques and further exposed to soluble Aβo was found to activate CaN, which then activated the transcriptional factor nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) involved in Ca(2+) dysregulation (Abdul et al., 2009).