BECN1 and Alzheimer disease: Beclin1 is a key factor in the formation of autophagosomes and has been shown to be transcriptionally suppressed in the brain of AD (Salminen et al., 2013); in addition, caspase-3, an executive enzyme in the apoptosis pathway, can split the beclin1 protein and lead to the destruction of autophagy (Guo et al., 2018).