Dana Atrahimovich, Avraham O Samson, Yifthah Barsheshet, Jacob Vaya, Soliman Khatib, Eli Reuveni, 2019
Background: Quercetin is a polyphenol of great interest given its antioxidant activity and involvement in the immune response. Although quercetin has been well studied at the molecular level as a gene regulator and an activator of specific cellular pathways, not much attention has been given to its mechanism of action at the genome-wide level. The present study aims to characterize quercetin's interaction with cellular DNA and to show its subsequent effect on downstream transcription.
Results: Two massive parallel DNA-sequencing technologies were used: Chem-seq and RNA-seq. We demonstrate that upon binding to DNA or genome-associated proteins, quercetin acts as a cis-regulatory transcription factor for the expression of genes that are involved in the cell cycle, differentiation and development.
Conclusions: Such findings could provide new and important insights into the mechanisms by which the dietary polyphenol quercetin influences cellular functions.