Furthermore, several studies also indicated that stimulation of OX1R can mediate glucose metabolism through stimulating HIF-1α signaling and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (23, 24), suggesting that orexin-A/OX1R might be a potential target for malignant cancer therapy. Here, HCRTR1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.