Matrine induces apoptosis in lung cancer cells, and also downregulates the expression of inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) (Niu et al., 2014) and regulates the protein kinase B/glycogen synthase kinase-3β (AKT/GSK-3β) signaling pathway by regulating phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian rapamycin target protein (mTOR) signaling pathway (Xie et al., 2018). Here, AKT1 is linked to lung cancer.