Neuroscience Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, IR, Iran.
Department of Oncology, Transplantations and New Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa, Italy.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2018 Jun 12;500(4):860-865. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2018.04.174. Epub 2018 Apr 26.
Quercetin is a plant polyphenol from the flavonoid group that plays a fundamental role in controlling homeostasis due to its potent antioxidant properties. However, quercetin has extremely low water solubility, which is a major challenge in drug absorption.
In this study, we described a simple method for the synthesis of quercetin nanoparticles. The quercetin nanoparticles had an average diameter of 82 nm and prominent yellow emission under UV irradiation. Therefore, we used an in vitro model treated with quercetin and quercetin nanoparticles to investigate the effects of quercetin nanoparticles on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.
MCF-7 cells were cultured with different concentrations (1-100 μM) of quercetin nanoparticles at the 24th, 48th and 72 nd hours, and cell cycle and apoptosis assays were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). In this study, we found that quercetin nanoparticles (1-100 μM) could significantly reduce cell vitality, growth rate and colony formation of MCF-7 cells.
Quercetin nanoparticles can inhibit cell growth by blocking the cell cycle and promoting apoptosis in MCF-7 cells more than quercetin. As a result, quercetin nanoparticles may be useful therapy or prevention on breast cancer.
槲皮素是一种来自类黄酮族的植物多酚，由于其强大的抗氧化特性，在控制体内平衡方面发挥着重要作用。然而，槲皮素的水溶性极低，这是药物吸收的主要挑战。
在本研究中，我们描述了一种合成槲皮素纳米粒子的简单方法。槲皮素纳米粒子的平均直径为 82nm，在紫外光照射下具有明显的黄色发射。因此，我们使用用槲皮素和槲皮素纳米粒子处理的体外模型来研究槲皮素纳米粒子对 MCF-7 乳腺癌细胞系的影响。
MCF-7 细胞分别用不同浓度（1-100μM）的槲皮素纳米粒子在第 24、48 和 72 小时培养，并用流式细胞术（FCM）检测细胞周期和细胞凋亡。在这项研究中，我们发现槲皮素纳米粒子（1-100μM）可以显著降低 MCF-7 细胞的活力、生长速度和集落形成能力。
槲皮素纳米粒子通过阻断细胞周期和促进 MCF-7 细胞凋亡来抑制细胞生长的能力强于槲皮素。因此，槲皮素纳米粒子可能是治疗或预防乳腺癌的有用方法。
