AKT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To test whether crosstalk between the AKT pathway and the MDR and EMT pathways plays a role in mediating sorafenib resistance in HCC, MK-2206, an AKT-specific inhibitor, was used to block the AKT pathway [31], and the EMT phenotype and MDR were detected by determining the protein expression of E-cadherin, Snail, Vimentin and P-gp.