Then, by western blot screening and subsequent confirmatory assays, we identified that p38 is a novel target gene of DPYD in HCC, and could regulate NF-κB/Snail1 signaling in DPYD-induced EMT (Figs. 7 and 8)23, which is in concordance with the effects in other cell lines as previously reported24–26. This evidence concerns the gene DPYD and hepatocellular carcinoma.