Interestingly, our results revealed that pharmacological and genetic inhibition of autophagy prevented the leptin-induced enhancement in mitochondrial function in hormone receptor-positive and triple-negative cancer cells (Figs. 3a–d, 4a–g, Supplementary Fig. S5–S7) suggesting a general effect of autophagy in mediating mitochondrial function in breast cancer cells. This evidence concerns the gene NR4A1 and breast cancer.