The role of quercetin as an anti-inflammation and anti-cancer drug targeted for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks as the most common and the second deadliest cancer worldwide and its development is related with changes in several important cellular signaling pathways. Quercetin is considered to possess anticancer activities. Meanwhile, ganglioside, which is a sialic acidcontaining glycosphingolipid, is significantly involved in cell adherence, cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, cellcell communication and cacinogenesis in many types of carcinomas including HCC cells. However, the apoptotic effect of quercetin in HCC Huh7 cells and PRC/PRF/5 cells via regulation of cell cycle and cell growth, and the change of ganglioside synthesis has not been studied. Here, we demonstrate that quercetin decreased cell growth and induced cell cycle apoptosis in both cell lines using several experimental techniques such as 3( 4,5dimethyl2yl) 5( 3carboxymethoxyphenyl) 2( 4sulfophenyl )2Htetrazolium, inner salt (MTS) assay, immunoblot analysis, Annexin V and highperformance thinlayer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis through doseand timedependent manner. Treatment of HCC cells with quercetin reduced cell growth and induced apoptosis, followed by regulation of cell cycle and growth protein and also changed ST3GAL2, which is a ganglioside GD1a synthase. Taken together, our findings indicated that quercetin suppressed the expression of ganglioside GD1a and thereby inhibited cell growth and cell cyclerelated apoptosis.