Quercetin and hyperthermia modulate cisplatin-induced DNA damage in tumor and normal tissues in vivo

Nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, myelosuppression, and genotoxicity are the major limitation for the clinical use of cisplatin as an anti-tumoural drug. Hyperthermia enhances the clastogenicity of cisplatin. In addition, hyperthermia is a promising approach for cancer therapy because it not only kills cancer cells directly, but also activates anti-cancer immunity as an indirect effect. The aim of this study was to determine whether preventive treatment with quercetin (QU) can reduce cisplatin-induced DNA damage in liver, kidney and blood cells and whether QU has the potential to serve as a beneficial supplement before cisplatin hyperthermal intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in order to gain immunomodulatory responses of mice to the tumor. Preventive treatment of mice with QU (50 mg kg(-1)) had a protective effect on cisplatin-induced DNA damage in normal cells, except kidney cells, in both normothermic and hyperthermic conditions without interfering with the antitumor efficacy of the combined regimen. Immunostimulation by QU is stressed as an important factor in the tumor-inhibiting effect of hyperthermia in addition to the well known selective heat killing of neoplastic cells. In conclusion, these results suggested that preventive treatment with QU could protect the blood, liver and kidney cells of mice against HIPEC-induced injury and increase survival of mice by improving the antitumor adaptive immunity with hyperthermia.