This is consistent with the previous study conducted by Shi et al. which showed that nuciferine induces the expression of ATG5 protein, as well as promotes the formation of autophagic puncta and autophagosomes in Caco-2 and HT-29 cell lines (human colonic epithelial tumor cell lines isolated from colorectal adenocarcinoma) (Shi et al., 2021). Here, ATG5 is linked to epithelial tumor of colon.