Quercetin Increases Expression of Membrane-TRAIL in Glioblastoma Cells Resulting in Apoptosis

We demonstrate that quercetin alone induces apoptosis in GBM cell lines by facilitating endogenous membrane-TRAIL trafficking to the cell surface, where it can interact with death receptors already present on the surface of neighboring cancer cells, resulting in cell death. This unexpected finding may prove to be invaluable for potential future treatment of patients with GBM, since administration of quercetin can cause increased trafficking of membrane-TRAIL to the cell surface, inducing cancer cell apoptosis without affecting neighboring normal cells.