Table 1 An overview of the autophagy mechanism in HCC progression

TNFAIP8/Akt/mTOR

TNFAIP8 induces autophagy via inhibition of the Akt/mTOR axis

[220]

PI3K/Akt/mTOR

Suppression of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR axis by apigenin can induce autophagy and apoptosis

Inhibition of autophagy enhances apoptosis

[221]

NBR2/JNK/Beclin1

LncRNA NBR2 reduces Beclin-1 expression via suppression of JNK and ERK1/2 signaling pathways in autophagy inhibition and impairs carcinogenesis

[222]

PNO1/MAPK

PNO1 induces autophagy and inhibits apoptosis via modulating MAPK signaling in HCC

[223]

BANCR/miR-590-5p/OLR1

Rutin promotes miR-590-5p expression via downregulation of BANCR to suppress OLR1 expression

Inhibition of autophagy reverses drug resistance

[224]

PRDX1/Akt/mTOR

Natamycin increases the degradation of PRDX1 to inhibit the Akt/mTOR axis, leading to the induction of pro-survival autophagy

[225]

–

Inhibition of autophagy by nitric oxide increases apoptosis in tumor cells

[226]

JNK/Beclin-1

Tangerein increases phosphorylation of JNK to overexpress Beclin-1 to suppress tumor cell growth and metastasis

[227]

–

Inhibition of autophagy by daurisoline is critical for increasing cell death of tumor cells by cisplatin

[228]

ER stress/autophagy

ZNF263 promotes ER stress-induced autophagy in mediating apoptosis resistance

[229]

PRMT6/BAG/HSC70

PRMT6 reduces BAG5 expression to upregulate HSC70 in autophagy induction and increase tumor progression and survival

[230]

MEK/ERK/autophagy

Suppression of MEK/ERK axis leads to inhibition of autophagy and increase cytotoxicity of pemetrexed against tumor cells

[231]