Focus on the high therapeutic potentials of quercetin and its derivatives

BACKGROUND: Polyphenols and particularly flavonoids are of constant interest to the scientific community. Flavonoids are investigated for their biological and pharmacological purposes, notably as antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral and for their anti-inflammatory activities. Certainly, one of the best-known flavonols recognized for its therapeutic and preventive properties, is quercetin. Despite its biological interest, quercetin suffer from some drawbacks, mainly related to its bioavailability. Hence, its synthetic or biosynthetic derivatives have been the subject of intensive research. The health-promoting biological activities of flavonols and derivatives mainly arise from their capacity to disrupt the host-pathogen interactions and/or to regulate host cellular functions including oxidative processes and immunological responses. In the age of coronavirus pandemic, the anti-inflammatory and antiviral potential of flavonols should be put forward to explore these substances for decreasing the viral load and inflammatory storm caused by the infection. PURPOSE OF STUDY: The present review will decipher and discuss the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiviral capacities of major flavonol with a focus on the molecular basis and structure-activity relationships. STUDY DESIGN: Current study used a combination of quercetin derivatives, pathway, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral activities as keywords to retrieve the literature. This study critically reviewed the current literature and presented the ability of natural analogs of quercetin having superior antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects than the original molecule. RESULTS: This review allowed the identification of relevant key structure-activity relationship elements and highlight approaches on the mechanisms governing the antioxidant, antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities. CONCLUSION: Through a critical analysis of the literature, flavonols and more precisely quercetin derivatives reviewed and found to act simultaneously on inflammation, virus and oxidative stress, three key factors that may lead to life threatening diseases.