It has been reported that matrine induces apoptosis by up-regulating Bax and down-regulating Bcl-2, inhibiting PI3K/AKT pathway in V600EBRAF harboring melanoma cells, or by decreasing the phosphorylation levels of Akt and ERK1/2 in human acute myeloid leukemia cells25,26,29,30. Here, AKT1 is linked to acute myeloid leukemia.