Background Treatment for malignant glioma generally consists of cytoreductive surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.In this study,we intended to investigate the effects of 2-propylpentanoic acid (VPA),a histone deacetylase inhibitor,on chemosensitivity and radiosensitivity in human glioma cell lines.Methods Human glioma cell lines,T98-G,and SF295,were treated with temozolomide (TMZ) or irradiation (IR),with or without VPA (1.0 mmol/L).Then,cytotoxicity and clonogenic survival assay was performed.Cell cycle stage,apoptosis,and autophagy were also detected using flow cytometry and dansyl monocadaverin (MDC) incorporation assay.One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test were used to analyze the differences among variant groups.Results Mild cytotoxicity of VPA was revealed in both cell lines,T98-G and SF295,with the 50％ inhibiting concentration (IC50) value of (3.85±0.58) mmol/L and (2.15±0.38) mmol/L,respectively; while the IC50 value of TMZ was (0.20±0.09) mmol/L for T98-G and (0.08±0.02) mmol/L for SF295.Moreover,if combined with VPA (1.0 mmol/L) for 96hours,the sensitivity of glioma cells to TMZ was significant increased (P ＜0.05).The surviving fractions at 2 Gy (SF2) of T98-G and SF295 cells exposed to IR alone were 0.52 and 0.58.However,when VPA was combined with IR,the SF2 of T98-G and SF295 dropped to 0.39 (P=0.047) and 0.49 (P=-0.049),respectively.Treatment with VPA plus TMZ or IR also resulted in a significant decrease in the proportion of cells in the G2 phase and increased apoptotic rates as well as autophagy in T98-G and SF295 cell lines (P ＜0.01).Conclusion VPA may enhance the activities of TMZ and IR on glioma cells possibly through cell cycle block and promote autophagy,and thus could be a potential sensitizer of glioma treatment.