Our analysis further revealed that T2DM patients with MCI exhibited significantly higher levels of Gal-3 in both training and validation cohorts, aligning with studies suggesting that serum Gal-3 levels might be a new risk factor for MCI in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and could serve as a potential target for therapeutic interventions aimed at preventing cognitive impairment in diabetes (49, 50). The gene discussed is LGALS3; the disease is diabetes mellitus.