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Updated: May 29, 2026

Pre-clinical Evaluation of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors for Treatment of Acute Leukemia
Published on: September 18, 2013
Quercetin-induced apoptosis involves increased hTERT enzyme activity of leukemic cells
Cigir Biray Avci1, Sunde Yilmaz, Zeynep Ozlem Dogan
1School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.
Abstract:
We aimed to examine the growth suppressive effects of quercetin on acute promyelocytic and lymphoblastic leukemia and chronic myeloid leukemia, and to find out whether the growth suppression is related to the blocking of telomerase enzyme activity. Cytotoxic effects of quercetin were shown by trypan blue analyses. Apoptotic effects of quercetin were examined by acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining by fluorescence microscopy. The effects of quercetin on telomerase enzyme activity were shown by hTERT Quantification Kit. Our results demonstrated that quercetin has antiproliferative and apoptotic effects on T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute promyelocytic leukemia, and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells. We also showed for the first time by this study that quercetin suppresses the activity of telomerase in ALL and CML cells. The results of this study show the importance of quercetin for its therapeutic potential in treatment of leukemias.
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