MTOR and B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia: However, early activation of this pathway did not affecct autophagy in CLL cells, whereas prolonged incubation with chidamide induced autophagy inhibition (Figure 1E) when the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway was inhibited, an event that normally activates autophagy, indicating the existence of other mechanisms that impair autophagy.