In neurodegenerative diseases such as Friedreich’s ataxia and Parkinson’s disease, SIRT1 activation helps maintain cellular iron balance, reducing oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation via Nrf2, GPX4 and FTH1, thereby protecting neurons from damage caused by ferroptosis (Lv et al., 2024; Zheng et al., 2023; Sanz-Alcázar et al., 2024). Here, SIRT1 is linked to neurodegenerative disease.