SLC2A1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In human Hep3B hepatocellular carcinoma cells, Liu et al. (2016) showed that orexin-A activates PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling to increase GLUT1 expression and glucose uptake, while simultaneously enhancing pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity, shifting metabolism from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation.