Increased serum Mg2+ ions could either be a cause of renal failure (Azem et al., 2020) or a physiological attempt to induce the adaptive immune response through the metal’s binding on the co-stimulatory cell-surface molecule LFA-1, which requires Mg2+ to adopt its active conformation on CD8+ T cells (Lötscher et al., 2022). The gene discussed is CD8A; the disease is kidney failure.