Specifically, as shown in Fig. 5a–c, the Western Blot analysis results indicated that high-dose TMZ alone had little effects on AMPK/ULK1 pathway, but PD-L1-ex increased the expression levels of phosphorylated AMPK (p-AMPK) and ULK1 (p-ULK1) to activate AMPK/ULK1 pathway in TS-GBM cells stimulated by high-dose TMZ (Fig. 5a–c). Here, ULK1 is linked to glioblastoma.