In the current study, we showed that autophagy in A549 and A549/DDP lung cancer cells could be induced by T4, which had a better effect on autophagic activities with PI3K, AKT and mTOR inhibitors, and the T4-induced autophagy was facilitated through the inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Here, AKT1 is linked to lung cancer.