Emodin coupled with high LET neutron beam—a novel approach to treat on glioblastoma

The primary motivation of this investigative study is trying to find an alternative treatment that can be used to slow down or treat glioblastoma due to the witnessed toxic side effects of the current drugs coupled with limited effectiveness in overall treatment. Consequently, a Chinese plant extract emodin proves to play a critical role in this investigative study since results from the Western blot and the other accompanying assays for anti-cancer effects indicate that it cannot work a lot to suppress cell migration and possible invasion, but rather emodin can be combined with radiation to give desired outcomes. Our result shows that the kind of radiation which acts well with emodin is neutron radiation rather than gamma radiation. Emodin significantly enhanced the radiosensitivity of LN18 and LN428 cells to γ-rays through MTT assay and cell counting. Accordingly, exposure to neutron radiation in the presence of emodin induced apoptotic cell death and autophagic cell death to a significantly higher extent, and suppressed cell migration and invasiveness more robustly. These effects are presumably due to the ability of emodin to amplify the effective dose from neutron radiation more efficiently. Thus, the study below is one such trial towards new interventional discovery and development in relation to glioblastoma treatment.