AKT1 and Parkinson disease: Noteworthily, the abrogated AKT activation is detectable in postmortem tissue from the substantia nigra of PD patients (Malagelada et al., 2008; Timmons et al., 2009), whereas the expression of constitutive active form of AKT blocks apoptosis of dopamine neurons of substantia nigra in a neurotoxin mouse model of Parkinsonism upon injecting 6-hydroxydopamine, an endogenous metabolite of dopamine (Ries et al., 2006).