Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy.
Department of Health Sciences, University "Magna Græcia" of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 2;24(3):2952. doi: 10.3390/ijms24032952.
Phytochemicals have long been effective partners in the fight against several diseases, including cancer. Among these, flavonoids are valuable allies for both cancer prevention and therapy since they are known to influence a large panel of tumor-related processes. Particularly, it was revealed that quercetin, one of the most common flavonoids, controls apoptosis and inhibits migration and proliferation, events essential for the development of cancer. In this review, we collected the evidence on the anti-cancer activity of quercetin exploring the network of interactions between this flavonol and the proteins responsible for cancer onset and progression focusing on breast, colorectal and liver cancers, owing to their high worldwide incidence. Moreover, quercetin proved to be also a potentiating agent able to push further the anti-cancer activity of common employed anti-neoplastic agents, thus allowing to lower their dosages and, above all, to sensitize again resistant cancer cells. Finally, novel approaches to delivery systems can enhance quercetin's pharmacokinetics, thus boosting its great potentiality even further. Overall, quercetin has a lot of promise, given its multi-target potentiality; thus, more research is strongly encouraged to properly define its pharmaco-toxicological profile and evaluate its potential for usage in adjuvant and chemoprevention therapy.
植物化学物质长期以来一直是对抗多种疾病(包括癌症)的有效伙伴。在这些物质中,黄酮类化合物是癌症预防和治疗的宝贵盟友,因为它们被认为可以影响大量与肿瘤相关的过程。特别是,研究表明,槲皮素是最常见的黄酮类化合物之一,它可以控制细胞凋亡,抑制迁移和增殖,这些是癌症发展所必需的事件。在这篇综述中,我们收集了关于槲皮素的抗癌活性的证据,探索了这种类黄酮与负责癌症发生和发展的蛋白质之间的相互作用网络,重点研究了乳腺癌、结直肠癌和肝癌,因为它们在世界范围内的发病率很高。此外,槲皮素还被证明是一种增效剂,能够进一步增强常用抗肿瘤药物的抗癌活性,从而降低其剂量,尤其是使耐药癌细胞再次敏感。最后,新型给药系统方法可以增强槲皮素的药代动力学特性,从而进一步提高其巨大的潜力。总的来说,鉴于槲皮素的多靶点潜力,它有很大的应用前景;因此,强烈鼓励进行更多的研究,以正确定义其药物毒理学特征,并评估其在辅助和化学预防治疗中的潜在用途。
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