CK1α has dual effects on autophagic regulation: on the one hand, the inhibition of CK1α can activate the mTOR signalling pathway to inhibit autophagy (Zhao et al., 2011; Gao et al., 2011); on the other hand, the overexpression of CK1α can increase autophagic flux in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells (Jiang et al., 2018). Here, MTOR is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.