Pau and his colleagues found that the anti-cancer molecule ABTL0812 increases cellular long-chain dihydroceramides by impairing DEGS1 (delta 4-desaturase, sphingolipid 1) activity, which resulted in persistent ER stress and activated UPR via ATF4-DDIT3-TRIB3 that ultimately promotes cytotoxic autophagy in cancer cells (Muñoz-Guardiola et al., 2021). This evidence concerns the gene ATF4 and cancer.