DCN activates autophagy through AKT/mTOR/p70S6K signaling while inhibiting inflammation-induced apoptosis and ECM degradation (Gubbiotti et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2020), demonstrating the close relationship between DCN and programmed cell death and PANoptosis, and confirming its potential role in PD and AD. The gene discussed is DCN; the disease is Alzheimer disease.