ULK1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Additionally, treatment with 3-MA or ULK1/siRNA with or without sorafenib markedly blunted autophagy activity in HCC cells, leading to decreased colony-formation capacity, increased apoptosis and higher protein expression levels of cleaved (c)-caspase 3 and c-poly ADP-ribose polymerase (c-PARP) (Fig. 2b–d; Fig. S1B-D).