The increasing body of evidence linking high circulating levels of cystatin C to cerebrovascular outcomes suggest that cystatin C may play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis and cerebrovascular disease, with evidence pointing at shared biological processes such as oxidative stress, micro-vascular inflammation, and plaque formation that are present in both early stages renal disease and vascular forms of dementia (Madero et al., 2009; O’Seaghdha et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2021, 2022). The gene discussed is CST3; the disease is atherosclerosis.