Effect of Quercetin on RAC1 Gene Expression as a Marker of Metastasis in Cervical Cancer Cells

Cancer metastasis is the most important cause of cancer death and different treatment strategies have targeted on preventing the occurrence of metastasis. Quercetin is a flavonoid and widely used as an antioxidant and recent studies have discovered its anticancer and antiproliferative capabilities. Rac1 is protein known to involve in tumor invasion and metastases. In this study, we investigated the effect of quercetin on expression of Rac1 protein. In this experimental study, HeLa cells were treated with quercetin at 2 concentrations (20 and 40 μM) for 24 hours and then cell lysate was assessed by Western blotting analysis to investigate the impact of quercetin on expression of Rac1 protein. Quercetin significantly decreased Rac1 expression of HeLa cells assessed by western blotting, in dose-dependent manners (P < 0.05). This study showed that quercetin decreased Rac1 expression as a marker of metastasis in cervical cancer cells. Therefore, the quercetin may provide an effective new strategy to reduce of tumor metastasis.