Figure 2.

Innovative Avenues to Address Metabolic and Neurodegenerative Disease. Current therapies for metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders are unable to prevent the onset and progression of these disorders. The clinical course of these disorders is closely tied to intracellular process that are linked to aging-related disorders, telomere dysfunction, cellular senescence, and oxidative stress. Novel and innovative therapeutic strategies are needed to address metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Pathways that may offer new insights into these disorders involve the silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 1 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) (SIRT1), AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK), and Wnt1 inducible signaling pathway protein 1 (WISP1). These pathways are closely interconnected, can form complexes, and involve ß-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺), nicotinamide (NIC), and trophic factors such as erythropoietin (EPO). Ultimately these pathways serve to provide oversight of programmed cell death mechanisms that involve autophagy, apoptosis, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis as well as mechanisms that can lead to mitochondrial stress such as with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) depletion.