Context: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a potentially fatal neurological disease with severe complications and a high disability rate. An increasing number of animal experimental studies support the therapeutic effect of quercetin, which is a natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant bioflavonoid.
Objective: This paper reviewed the therapeutic effect of quercetin on a rat SCI model and summarized the relevant mechanistic research.
Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Science Direct, WanFang Data, SinoMed databases, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and the Vip Journal Integration Platform were searched from their inception to April 2023 for animal experiments applying quercetin to treat SCI.
Study selection: Based on the PICOS criteria, a total of 18 eligible studies were included, of which 14 were high quality.
Results: In this study, there was a gradual increase in effect based on the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score after three days (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, gender differences also appeared in the efficacy of quercetin; males performed better than females (p = 0.008). Quercetin was also associated with improved inclined plane test score (p = 0.008). In terms of biochemical indicators, meta-analysis showed that MDA (p < 0.0001) and MPO (p = 0.0002) were significantly reduced after quercetin administration compared with the control group, and SOD levels were increased (p = 0.004). Mechanistically, quercetin facilitates the inhibition of oxidative stress, inflammation, autophagy and apoptosis that occur after SCI.
Conclusions: Generally, this systematic review suggests that quercetin has a neuroprotective effect on SCI.
Keywords: Herbal medicine; Quercetin; Systematic review; 3,3′,4′,5,7-pentahydroxyflavone; meta-analysis; natural flavonoid; neuroprotection; spinal cord injury.