Quercetin Offers Chemopreventive Potential against Breast Cancer by Targeting a Network of Signalling Pathways

Abstract

This approach was designed to explore the influence of quercetin on distinct molecular pathways implicated in breast cancer evolution. The cytotoxic impact of quercetin on two breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 was quantified via MTT assay. The expression levels of the selected genes involved in apoptosis, proliferation, progression, invasion and metastases of breast cancer were analyzed using RT-PCR. The outcomes of the present study explicated that quercetin exhibited suppression effect on MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 with IC50 = 151 and 958µM respectively after 48 h incubation time. Furthermore, the molecular genetic analysis revealed that quercetin provoked significant downregulation in the expression level of survivin, STAT3, IL-6, VEGF, Slug and MMP7 genes in both cell lines after hours. Meanwhile, MCF-7 exhibited insignificant downregulation in the expression level of Snail and Notch-4 genes after treatment with quercetin. In MDA-MB-231 cells, quercetin evoked insignificant downregulation in the expression level of Snail gene but significant downregulation in the expression level of Notch-4 gene. Conclusively, this work provides scientific clue that quercetin can combat breast cancer through modulating consequential signal transduction pathways engaged in breast cancer development.