Plasma-type gelsolin in subarachnoid hemorrhage: novel biomarker today, therapeutic target tomorrow?

There is growing interest in the potential neuroprotective properties of gelsolin. In particular, plasma-type gelsolin (pGSN) can ameliorate deleterious inflammatory response by scavenging pro-inflammatory signals such as actin and lipopolysaccharide. In a recent issue of Critical Care, Pan and colleagues report an important association between pGSN and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) disease severity, and found pGSN to be a novel and promising biomarker for SAH clinical outcome. Previous research shows pGSN may be actively degraded by neurovascular proteases such as matrix metalloproteinases in the cerebral spinal fluid of SAH patients. Taken together, these results suggest that pGSN is not only a novel marker of SAH clinical outcome, but may also play an active mechanistic role in SAH, and potentially serve as a future therapeutic target.