Western blotting showed that lycorine treatment not only markedly increased SAV1 protein levels (Fig. 3a–d; Supplementary Fig. S3a, b) but also dramatically increased phosphorylation of its interacting protein MST1, indicating MST1 protein activation, in SPC-A-1 (Fig. 3a, b) and A549 lung cancer cells (Fig. 3c, d) in a concentration-dependent manner. This evidence concerns the gene MST1 and lung carcinoma.