ACLY had association with CBX2 (Spearman’s rho  =  0.394; p  <  0.001), GAGE4 (Spearman’s rho  =  0.232; p  <  0.001), KPNA2 (Spearman’s rho  =  0.656; p  <  0.001), LCAT (Spearman’s rho  =  − 0.272; p  <  0.001) and SPP1 (Spearman’s rho  =  0.321; p  <  0.001) in HCC (Fig. 7I). Here, ACLY is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.