Zheng et al. (2009) applied the ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference technique to the rat model of cerebral ischemia to down-regulate the expression of Beclin-1 in the ischemic brain and inhibit mitochondrial autophagy and noted that it can alleviate cerebral ischemic injury, inhibit neuronal apoptosis in cortex and striatum, and improve the symptoms of neurological impairment. Here, BECN1 is linked to brain ischemia.