In terms of future progress, lipid raft research might open new avenues in regulation of the proteolytic and signaling processes involved in AD pathology. The most recent discovery of the role of lipid raft disruption in decreased production of the functionally active transcriptional regulator AICD which might lead to an aberrant expression of its target genes including amyloid-degrading enzymes neprilysin (Howell et al., 1995; Carson and Turner, 2002; Belyaev et al., 2009; Liu et al., 2011) , suggests that any therapeutics aimed at manipulation of lipid raft composition should be treated with caution. The role of the lipid components in cell membrane functioning and their structural variability and adaptive potential is extremely important for normal functioning of cells and organisms and much of the recent work in this area is both novel and revealing. However, it is important to note that these discoveries should be recognized as important advances in cell science and not seen as stepping stones to a therapeutic panacea.