Yaru Zhang and Li Sun* Pages 406 - 414 ( 9 )
Cystatin C (CysC), a cysteine protease inhibitor, has been widely proven to be a highly sensitive biomarker to predict the kidney function. The similarity of the renal and cerebral small vessels has awakened a surge of studies suggesting that CysC plays a key role in various cerebrovascular disorders. This review focuses on four major mechanisms of CysC in a variety of cerebrovascular diseases. (1) The property of the CysC Leu-68-Gln (L68Q) variant to aggregate and the property of the wild type CysC protein to co-aggregate with Amyloid-β (Aβ); (2) The disruption of equilibrium between CysC and related cysteine proteases; (3) The function of CysC as an inflammatory inducing factor; (4) The ability of CysC to induce autophagy. The combination of these CysC properties provides a well-supported novel biomarker for cerebrovascular diseases.
CysC, cerebrovascular diseases, cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), cerebral aneurysms (CAs), subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), ischemic stroke, cerebral small vascular diseases (CSVDs), vascular dementia (VD).
Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Department of Neurology and Neuroscience Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun