Ren et al. demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 triggers caspase-dependent apoptosis, which induces PDK1 kinase and inhibits the activation of PDK1-PKB/AKT signaling in Vero E6 cells (monkey kidney cells), HEK393T cells (human embryonic kidney cells), and HepG2 cells (hepatocellular carcinoma cells) [213]. Here, PDK1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.