Over recent years, some studies have revealed that DEX exerts neuroprotective effects by activating BDNF signaling in other models of neurological impairment, such as the neurotoxicity in developing rats induced by sevoflurane (Dong et al., 2020), cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats (Li et al., 2018) and kainic acid-induced neural excitotoxicity (Chiu et al., 2019). The gene discussed is BDNF; the disease is Cerebral ischemia.