AKT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Bufalin, the bioactive C-24 steroids extracted from traditional Chinese medicine toad venom, exerted synergistic effects on angiogenesis with sorafenib via downregulating PI3K/Akt/mTOR/VEGF signaling pathways in HCC and HUVECs (Wang et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2018).