HIF-1α mainly upregulates autophagy in cancer through the following pathways: promoting PTP-PEST expression to activate AMPK, increasing BNIP3 expression, and lastly, interfering with the interaction of Beclin1 with BCL-2, and inducing ELP3-mediated PAK1 acetylation, leading to subsequent PAK1-mediated ATG5 (autophagy-related 5) phosphorylation at T101 residue (Figure 4) (85–87). The gene discussed is ATG5; the disease is cancer.