ABL1 and frontotemporal dementia: In this context, aberrant c-Abl activation was shown to cause early neuroinflammation and loss of neurons in the forebrain of Niemann–Pick type C (NPC) transgenic mice [11], and increased c-Abl activation has been reported in neurodegenerative pathologies of PD, AD, ALS and FTD by us and others [11,12,13].