EPO and Parkinson disease: Jang et al. (2016) discovered dysfunctional autophagy regulation in animal model of rotenone-induced PD, with significant recovery after treatment with EPO. As shown in the study by Wang et al., EPO activates autophagy in rats with SCI by activating the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway in the injured spinal cord and decreasing the levels of mammalian target of rapamycin (TOR; Wang et al., 2018).