Therefore, we speculated that epalrestat may have some off-target effects in the H2009 cell line by targeting other members of aldo–keto reductase superfamily, such as AKR1B10, but the in-depth mechanism of AKR1B1 inhibition mediated by epalrestat in lung cancer need to be further investigated in the future. Here, AKR1B1 is linked to lung cancer.