The study also found significant downregulation in expression levels of anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-xL and Mcl-1; significant reduction in the phosphorylation of ERK and Akt in MDA-MB-231 cells but an increased ERK phosphorylation in MCF-7 cells; additionally, a synergistic increase in intracellular ROS level of breast cancer cells and reduction in the level of intracellular glutathione (Zhang et al., 2013). This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and breast cancer.