BIRC5 and liver cancer: Western blot showed that treatment of PP notably reduced protein expressions of phospho-AKT (p-AKT), the activated form of AKT, and its downstream targets including phospho-GSK3β (p-GSK3β), Survivin, Bcl-xL in a dose-dependent manner, but not that of Bax and total level of AKT and GSK3β in both liver cancer cells (Fig. 2A).