Scientific Reports (Jan 2021)

Effects of different combined regimens of cisplatin, metformin, and quercetin on nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells and subcutaneous xenografts

  • Zhongwei Chen,
  • Zhen Zeng,
  • Shanshan Zhu,
  • Ying Zeng,
  • Qihuang Lin,
  • Lianzhong Luo,
  • Xuan Hong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80198-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Cisplatin, metformin, and quercetin are all reliable anticancer drugs. However, it is unclear how effective their different combination regimens are on the growth of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line Sune-1 and subcutaneous xenograft in nude mice. This study evaluated the effects of single-drug, two-drug, and three-drug simultaneous or sequential combined application of these drugs on the growth of Sune-1 cells and subcutaneous xenograft tumors in nude mice. The results showed that the different combination regimens of cisplatin, metformin and quercetin all had significant inhibitory effects on the proliferation of Sune-1 cells and the growth of subcutaneous xenografts in nude mice (P metformin > quercetin. In summary, our results indicate that the simultaneous combination of cisplatin, metformin, and quercetin may synergistically inhibit the growth of Sune-1 cells and subcutaneous xenografts in nude mice through their different anticancer mechanisms, which may be clinically refractory and provide reference for chemotherapy of patients with recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma.