Similar to our findings in breast cancer cells, doxorubicin treatment reduced AMPKα1 expression and induced autophagy and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner (Fig. 5a), and combined treatment with 3.0 mM melatonin and 1.0 μM doxorubicin markedly reduced AMPKα1 mRNA levels and induced autophagy and apoptosis in all of the tested cancer cell lines (Fig. 5b). The gene discussed is PRKAA1; the disease is breast cancer.