Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Activity of Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes Conjugated with Quercetin

Inflammation is closely associated with cancer and leads to the formation of various malignancies. Quercetin is a naturally occurring flavonoid, with numerous pharmaceutical activities like anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumor effects. Due to its partial solubility in an aqueous solution, its consumption is limited. We recently showed the physicochemical characterization of titanium dioxide nanotubes (TNT) conjugated with quercetin and we found that quercetin conjugated with TNT enhances the anticancer activity in B16F10 cells and induced apoptosis. In the present study, we stimulated the efficiency of quercetin conjugated with titanium dioxide nanotubes and studies their anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory activity. TNT conjugated with quercetin showed less cytotoxic effect towards RAW264.7 macrophages than quercetin alone. The inflammatory stimulation of RAW264.7 with LPS induced the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and inducible nitric synthase mRNA which were significantly inhibited by treating with TNT-Qu without causing any toxicity than quercetin and TNT alone. These results suggested that the potential of TNT conjugated with quercetin are better than quercetin and TNT alone and TNT may provide protection against inflammation by down regulating IL-6 and iNOS.