Cellular and cardiac samples were homogenized using RIPA cell lysis buffer (Thermo Scientific) enriched with phosphatases and protease inhibitors (Thermo Scientific). Then, the lysates underwent sonication and were centrifuged for 10 min at 4°C at 13,000 rpm to discard the insoluble debris. Next, total protein amounts were quantified via a dye-binding Pierce BCA protein assay kit (Thermo Scientific) and detected using a spectrophotometer reader (SpectraMax i3x Multi-mode Microplate Reader, Molecular Devices) at a wavelength of 512 nm. Equal yields of protein (20–40 μg) were separated through SDS-PAGE and identified by western blot analysis. Total lysates were used to evaluate the protein levels of NGF (AN-240; Alomone labs; 1:1000), BDNF (ANT-010; Alomone labs; 1:1000), GAP-43 (Millipore AB552; 1:1000), Cleaved Caspase-3- Asp175 (Cl-Casp-3- Cell Signaling- #94530; 1:200), dopamine β hydroxylase (DβH; AB1536; Millipore), human Aβ [mouse monoclonal anti-Aβ antibodies mixture composed of 4G8 epitope (residues Aβ18–22; SIG-39320; Covance) and 6E10 epitope (residues Aβ3–8; SIG-39220; Covance)], and GAPDH (sc-32233,6C5; Santa Cruz Biotechnology; 1: 2000), the latter which was used as the loading control. Protein bands were detected by using Odyssey® CLx Imaging System according to the manufacturer’s instructions and quantified with Image Studio™ Lite Software[26 (link)].