Zhang et al. demonstrated that SAA alleviates cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury by inhibiting NF-κB p65 activation and suppressing the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in the rat brain, thereby attenuating the inflammatory response, reducing infarct volume, and improving neurological deficit scores, ultimately mitigating cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury [14]. Here, MMP9 is linked to brain ischemia.