HELB and Sepsis: A lactylation-based prognostic model was developed, comprising eight key genes (CD160, HELB, ING4, PIP5K1C, SRPRA, CDCA7, FAM3A, PPP1R15A), and demonstrated strong predictive performance for sepsis outcomes (AUC = 0.78 in the training cohort; AUC = 0.73 in the validation cohort).