HAP1 and neurodegenerative disease: Interestingly, these regions of the central nervous system are usually spared from neurodegeneration, whereas the regions lacking STB/HAP1 or with little expression such as neocortex, striatum, thalamus, cerebellum and spinal motoneurons are major targets in different neurodegenerative diseases (Fujinaga et al., 2004; Islam et al., 2017).