Abstract
Quercetin is a flavonoid present in fruits, vegetables and plants with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. Its beneficial activities have been demonstrated in different human pathologies, including hepatoprotective effects against liver disorders. High mortality and late diagnosis of the primary liver tumor hepatocarcinoma (HCC) makes this cancer an interesting target for the study of quercetin effects. Our aim was to systematically review antitumor activities of quercetin in HCC preclinical studies employing single, encapsulated, combined or derived quercetin forms. Literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (WOS), and 39 studies were finally included. We found that 17 articles evaluated quercetin effects alone, six used encapsulated strategy, 10 combined this flavonoid, two decided to co-encapsulate it and only four studied effects of quercetin derivatives, highlighting that only nine included in vivo models. Results evidence the quercetin antiproliferative and proapoptotic properties against HCC either alone and with the mentioned strategies; nevertheless, few investigations assessed specific activities on different processes related with cancer progression. Overall, further studies including animal models are needed to deeper investigate the precise mechanisms of action of quercetin as antitumor agent, as well as the potential of novel strategies aimed to improve quercetin effects in HCC.
Highlights
Quercetin (3,30,40,5,7-pentahydroxy flavone) is one of the main components of the polyphenol family of flavonoids [1] and it is mostly present in fruits, vegetables and some plant-derived beverages, such as wine or tea [2]
Following criteria were used for inclusion of articles that met all of them: (i) studies that employed quercetin as single or combined agent, free or encapsulated, or quercetin-derived forms; (ii) studies that used in vitro or in vivo models of HCC; (iii) studies that reported effects directly generated by quercetin treatment
A total of 201 articles were obtained in the database search, of which articles were from Web of Science (WOS), articles were from Scopus and 142 articles were from PubMed
Summary
Quercetin (3,30 ,40 ,5,7-pentahydroxy flavone) is one of the main components of the polyphenol family of flavonoids [1] and it is mostly present in fruits, vegetables and some plant-derived beverages, such as wine or tea [2]. This flavonoid has many beneficial properties on human health [2], being associated its biological activity with the presence of five hydroxyl groups on the ring structure [1]. Hepatocyte damage eventually contributes to the development of liver disorders
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