Several drugs exert their pharmacological effects through the inhibition of various molecules within the HMGB1/TLR4/NF-κB pathway, resulting in reduced hippocampal inflammatory responses, suppressed microglial activation, mitigated neuronal injury and attenuated surgery-induced memory impairment (Wang et al., 2022, 2023; Yao et al., 2023). The gene discussed is HMGB1; the disease is memory impairment.