PROK1 and pachyonychia congenita: To summarize, our results revealed that the inhibition of the phosphorylation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR mediated by PROK1 knockdown induced cell apoptosis, which might be why PROK1 silencing promoted the human PC xenograft tissues to shrink and the cells in BALB/c nude mice to undergo apoptosis.