AKT1 and gastric cancer: However, studies have reported that matrine also induces protective autophagy, in which process matrine treatment does not directly inhibit the expression of AKT and its downstream effector mTOR and phosphorylation of p70 ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K), and inhibition of autophagy can enhance the killing of gastric cancer cells by matrine (Li et al., 2013).