Onkologie. 2013:7(5):248-252

The use of biological activity of quercetin in cancer therapy

Barbora Novotná¹, Lenka Borská², Zdeněk Fiala¹, Jan Krejsek³

¹ Ústav hygieny a preventivního lékařství, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Lékařská fakulta v Hradci Králové

² Ústav patologické fyziologie, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Lékařská fakulta v Hradci Králové

³ Ústav klinické imunologie a alergologie, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Lékařská fakulta v Hradci Králové

This review deals with biological activity of quercetin with the use of newer data from PubMed database. Quercetin is a flavonoid of

natural origin possessing antiinflamatory and antioxidative properties. Studies of quercetin effects on normal and tumor cells are resulting

in a new information about posibilities of quercetin use in cancer therapy. These studies on quercetin cellular effects in cancer

cells elucidated the fact that quercetin application leads in these cells to significant increase of apoptotic processes when these cells

produce protein p53. Increased production of protein p53 is accompanied by an activation of AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase). It

was clearly demonstrated that a manganese-containing superoxid dismutase and BCL2 genes represent main targets in a molecular

mechanism that activates quercetin-containing chemotherapy and which also induces apoptosis through a direct activation of caspase

cascade in mitochondrias of cancer cells. Quercetin administration decreases cellular concentrations of Her-2/neu protein that indicates

unfavorable prognosis for patients with breast cancer. Quercetin also significantly increases TRAIL-induced apoptosis. This is accompanied

by an increase in death receptor 5 expression and by an inhibition of survivine expresion and also by numerous other effects that are

discused according to the type of cancer cells, in which they were investigated. Data regarding the ability of quercetin to increas effectivity

of therapies in combinations with doxorubicine, tamoxifen, vinkristin, cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil and temozolomide are of direct clinical

relevance. In many cases, quercetin increases cell sensitivity to the therapy or makes chemotherapy less toxic. However, therapeutic use

of quercetin may be limited because of its various other effects in cells and potentially in a whole organism.

Keywords: Quercetin, biological activity, tumor diseases, mechanism of action, sensitivity to therapy

Published: November 1, 2013  Show citation