aggregation and activation of Caspase 8 and subsequent activation of the Caspase cascade. However, Caspase 8 induction does not appear to be involved in p75NTR-mediated apoptosis, but Caspase 9 is activated during p75NTR-mediated killing. Role in disease Huntington's disease Huntington's disease is characterized by cognitive impairments. There is increased expression of p75NTR in the hippocampus of Huntington's disease patients (including mice models and humans). Over expression of p75NTR in mice causes cognitive impairments similar to Huntington's disease. p75NTR is linked to reduced numbers of dendritic spines in the hippocampus, likely through p75NTR interactions with Transforming protein RhoA. Modulating p75NTR function could be a future direction in treating Huntington's disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive muscular paralysis reflecting degeneration of motor neurons in the primary motor cortex, corticospinal tracts, brainstem and spinal cord. One study using the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) mutant mouse, an ALS model which develops severe neurodegeneration, the expression of p75NTR correlated with the extent of degeneration and p75NTR knockdown delayed disease progression. Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. AD is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of cognitive functioning - thinking, remembering and reasoning- and behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person's daily life and activities. The neuropathological hallmarks of AD include amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which lead to neuronal death. Studies in animal models of AD have shown that p75NTR contributes to amyloid β-induced neuronal damage. In humans with AD, increases in p75NTR expression relative to TrkA have been suggested to be responsible for the loss of cholinergic neurons. Increases in proNGF in AD indicate that the Neurotrophin environment is favorable for p75NTR/sortilin signaling and supports the theory that age-related neural damage is facilitated by a shift toward proNGF-mediated signaling. Role in cancer stem cells p75NTR has been implicated as a marker for cancer stem cells in melanoma and other cancers. Melanoma cells transplanted into an immunodeficient mouse model were shown to require expression of CD271 in order to grow a melanoma. Gene knockdown of CD271 has also been shown to abolish neural crest stem cell properties of melanoma cells and decrease genomic stability leading to a reduced migration, tumorigenicity, proliferation and induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, increased levels of CD271 were observed in brain metastatic melanoma cells whereas resistance to the