HK2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: We identified hexokinase 2 (HK2), which is both highly elevated in rapidly growing cancers and catalyzes the irreversible first step of glucose metabolism and is a key glycolytic enzyme for the Warburg effect9, 18, 22, 23, 36, and thus it is reported as a pivotal player in the Warburg effect and is proposed as a metabolic target for cancer therapeutic development9, 10, 36, as a novel target of miR-125a and further demonstrated that miR-125a represses glycolysis by targeting HK2 in HCC cells.