QUERCETIN DEVELOPS SENSITIVITY OF ADENOCARCINOMA CELLS TO RADIATION VIA LOWERING METASTASIS AND PROMOTING CASPASE-3 INDEPENDENT CELL DEATH

Quercetin (QCN) is a flavonoid available in fruits and vegetables, and it has shown several medicinal properties, including anticancer properties. However, the radiosensitizing properties of QCN on adenocarcinoma cells have not been greatly looked into yet. Thus in the present study, we investigate the effect QCN would have on the lung adenocarcinoma cell line NCI-H23 (H23) when QCN is combined with radiation. We checked for QCN’s effect on cell survival of H23 and the embryonic HEK293T cells. We checked the effect that QCN alone and QCN in combination with radiation would have on oxidative stress, metastatic proteins MMP-2 and p21, the expression of AKT1 and PTEN genes, and the apoptosis-associated genes in H23 cells. We observed that QCN alone and in combination with radiation lowered the cell survival of H23 cells while not affecting the cell survival of HEK293T cells. The QCN treated groups showed a spike in oxidative stress, lowering of the levels of MMP-2 and p21 proteins, up-regulation of PTEN gene and down-regulation of AKT1 gene expression, and a caspase-3 independent cell death. From our results, we can state that QCN had a radiosensitizing effect on H23 cells, and it achieved so via lowering metastatic proteins, lowering AKT1 expression, promoting PTEN expression, and promoting caspase-3 independent cell death.