Effect of Quercetin on Inhibition of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Cells

Abstract

Acute  myeloid  leukemia  (AML)  is  a  malignant  disorder  of  hematopoietic  cells

common in the elderly.  The treatment options of AML are chemotherapy and bone marrow

transplantation.  However, these treatments have brought worse side effects to some patients.

For this reason, natural compounds  are being considered  as alternative medicine to be used

in leukemia  treatment.    This  research  was  aimed  to  study  the  effect  of  quercetin,  a natural

flavonoid of many plants, vegetables and fruits, on the inhibition of acute myeloid  leukemia

(AML)  cells.    The  study  revealed  that quercetin  significantly  decreased  the  percentage  of

cell viability of U937-treated  cells (p  < 0.001).    Furthermore, pretreatment of U937 cells with

autophagy  inhibitor,  3-methyladenine  (3-MA),   enhanced  quercetin-reduced  cell  viability  in

AML cell  line.    In conclusion,  the results demonstrated a quercetin-mediated  leukemic  cell

death and quercetin in combination with autophagy inhibitor could be considered as a potent

supplementary for AML treatment.