Is there a possibility for paramyxoviruses of insectivorous bats to emerge as zoonotic pathogens? Before any answer to this question can be attempted, further research on paramyxovirus diversity and distribution combined with the understanding of dynamics of pathogen cycles within bat populations will be needed as well as investigations into pathogenicity factors of these viruses, like receptors for host invasion. Particularly as so far transmission of bat related paramyxoviruses did not occur directly between bats and humans but depended on a secondary host species like horses or pigs. Lipid Rafts and Alzheimer’s Disease: Protein-Lipid Interactions and Perturbation of Signaling Lipid rafts are membrane domains, more ordered than the bulk membrane and enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids. They represent a platform for protein-lipid and protein–protein interactions and for cellular signaling events. In addition to their normal functions, including membrane trafficking, ligand binding (including viruses), axonal development and maintenance of synaptic integrity, rafts have also been implicated in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Lipid rafts promote interaction of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) with the secretase (BACE-1) responsible for generation of the amyloid β peptide, Aβ. Rafts also regulate cholinergic signaling as well as acetylcholinesterase and Aβ interaction. In addition, such major lipid raft components as cholesterol and GM1 ganglioside have been directly implicated in pathogenesis of the disease. Perturbation of lipid raft integrity can also affect various signaling pathways leading to cellular death and AD. In this review, we discuss modulation of APP cleavage by lipid rafts and their components, while also looking at more recent findings on the role of lipid rafts in signaling events. It has traditionally been difficult to reach any kind of consensus concerning the definition of lipid rafts. However, in 2006 at the Keystone Symposium on Lipid Rafts and Cell Function in Colorado it was agreed that "membrane rafts are small (10-200 nm), heterogeneous, highly dynamic, sterol, and sphingolipid-enriched domains that compartmentalize cellular processes. Small rafts can sometimes be stabilized to form larger platforms through proteinprotein and protein-lipid interactions" (Pike, 2006) . The long, saturated acyl chains of sphingolipids allow tight packing hence their juxtaposition with the kinked, unsaturated acyl chains of bulk membrane phospholipids leads to phase separation (Brown and London, 2000) . The cholesterol molecules can act as "spacers," filling any gaps in sphingolipid packing (Simons and Ikonen, 1997) .