(534a) Carrier-Free Quercetin Nanoparticles for Overcoming Cancer Drug Resistance

Multidrug resistance (MDR) remains as a major issue in cancer treatment and is responsible for treatment failure and death. MDR is also believed to directly associate with breast cancer metastasis and cancer relapse. Despite increased understanding of drug resistance over the last decade, effective approaches to overcoming DMR are still lacking. Quercetin, one of the major natural flavonoids, has demonstrated great pharmacological potential in overcoming MDR. However, the clinical applications of quercetin have been limited by its poor solubility in aqueous solution, stability prone to oxidation, rapid clearance from the body, and limited bioavailability. In this presentation, we report the formation of carrier-free quercetin-Fe complex nanoparticles with different quercetin-Fe ratios. The design of carrier-free overcomes the dependence on carrier matrix, which strongly affects the encapsulation and release of quercetin. The metal complex formation increased quercetin stability, improved quercetin solubility, and enhanced Q cellular bioavailability. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of quercetin-Fe complex nanoparticle formation, enhanced antioxidant activity compared to free quercetin, effectiveness of quercetin-Fe complex nanoparticles on blocking efflux pumps, such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp), and effective cellular update. Our on-going studies will be on effectiveness of quercetin-Fe complex nanoparticles on overcoming MDR of difference cancer cell lines and mechanistic insights into the anticancer activity.