HTRA2 and neurodegenerative disease: HTRA2(high-temperature requirement protein A2), a gene localized on the short arm of chromosome 2 (2p13.1), encodes a serine protease which influences the development of apoptotic processes and various neurodegenerative diseases.11This protein, a member of the high-temperature requirement serine protease A, which acts as a protective chaperon while in the mitochondria, becomes a proapoptotic molecule as soon as it releases into the cytosol and allows apoptosis to occur in both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent manners.12