Taken together, these results indicate that: (i) to protect normal cells against stress-induced cell death, upregulation of AMPK, which simultaneously activates multiple downstream autophagic pathways, and inhibition of PUMA48, could be highly efficacious strategies; (ii) In contrast, Beclin-1 inhibitors such as spautin-1 may improve the efficacy of apoptosis-inducers and may be advantageously used for pre-empting autophagic response and enabling the elimination of cancer cells with high apoptotic thresholds. The gene discussed is BECN1; the disease is cancer.