Synergistic Anti-tumour Effects of Quercetin and Oncolytic Adenovirus expressing TRAIL in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The combination of oncolytic adenoviruses and specific chemotherapy agents is fast emerging as a novel therapeutic approach for resistan the patocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. A detailed analysis of the network between adenovirus and chemotherapeutic agents can help design an effective strategy to combat HCC. We sought to investigate whether a combined treatment of ZD55-TRAIL and quercetin can have an enhanced cell-killing effect on HCC cells. In-vitro experiments showed that quercetin can enhance ZD55-TRAIL mediated growth inhibition and apoptosis in HCC cells. In addition, we showed that quercetin reduced ZD55-TRAIL mediated NF-κB activation and down-regulated its downstream targets, which in turn promoted the pro-apoptotic action of ZD55-TRAIL. Furthermore, in-vivo experiments in mice injected with HuH-7 cells resulted in significantly greater reduction in tumour growth and volume following combined ZD55-TRAIL and quercetin treatment. In conclusion, we demonstrated that quercetin could sensitize human HCC cells to apoptosis via ZD55-TRAIL in-vitro and in-vivo and presented ZD55-TRAIL and quercetin combination as a suitable anti-HCC therapy.