| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 生命科學研究所 === 102 === Glioblastoma (glioblastoma multiforme, GBM) is the most common and aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in adults. It is notorious for its genetic, cellular and phenotypic heterogeneity, which makes the disease difficult to target. The existence of glioblastoma stem cells (GSC or glioblastoma-initiating cells) may account for the invasiveness and drug resistance of GBM and become a suitable target for developing new treatment for this malignant disease. Chinese herbal medicine is a traditional therapy and has been used widely in Chinese for few thousand years. Nowadays, it is not only important in disease treatment, but also becomes a promising biotech product remained to be revealed by evidence-based analysis. To investigate whether herbal extracts may serve as a new drug for the treatment of glioblastoma, especially targeting GSCs, we have set up a drug screening platform using human glioblastoma cell lines-derived tumorsphere cells to screen 400 herbal extracts. Three herbal extracts have been identified, which effectively inhibited the growth of GSCs but with low or no toxicity to non-transforming cells. In addition, these extracts also inhibited the spheroid formation and cell migration ability of GSCs. The expression levels of stem cell markers such as CD133 and Sox2 were also reduced by the treatments of these extracts. The signaling pathways affected by these extracts include Akt, ERK, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. In conclusion, we have identified three effective Chinese herbal extracts which target GSCs effectively, and could be further developed as potential therapeutics of glioblastoma.
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