Wu et al. demonstrated that the tight junction protein CLDN1 activates AMPK/STAT1/ULK1 signaling in the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines TE10 and TE11, which induces autophagy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells, and enhances cancer cell proliferation and metastasis [7]. Here, ULK1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.