These results demonstrated that the anti-cancer activities of Se NPs are closely associated with their ability to promote cancer cell autophagy by inhibiting PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, which could be combined with some anticancer agents, such as silymarin, for more effective PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway inhibition and autophagy induction in cancer cells. The gene discussed is AKT1; the disease is cancer.