“…18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 In our previous studies, we observed the activation of caspase and calpain in neurotoxin-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration 28, 29 and found that degradation of endogenous substrates by activated proteases leads to neurodegeneration. 30, 31 Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the expression and protease-mediated regulation of cdr2 in experimental models of PD. We found that cdr2 is downregulated by calpain and the ubiquitin proteasome system and that the restoration of cdr2 levels renders dopaminergic neurons less vulnerable to 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP + )-mediated cytotoxicity.…”