The results showed that the newly synthesized compound 9M could inhibit thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) activity, increase ROS levels, reduce the mitochondrial transmembrane potential (MTP) by regulating autophagy-related proteins Lc3, p62 and Beclin-1, and induce autophagy in Bel7402/5-FU hepatoma cells (Zhu et al., 2020). Here, PRDX5 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.