Since YY1 appears to promote autophagy in pancreatic cancer cells by directly targeting miR-30a, we next explored whether miR-30a modulates YY1 expression, since this type of feedback regulation is commonly observed between transcription factors and miRNAs (such as the Pitx3/miR-133b feedback circuit in midbrain dopamine neurons) [24, 25]. Here, YY1 is linked to pancreatic neoplasm.