Cornus iridoid glycosides have been found to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus in conjunction with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by activating the PI3K/Akt pathway in rats (Niu et al., 2021), while also exerting hypolipidemic, hypoglycemic, and antioxidant effects (Kang et al., 2018). This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus.