Quercetin Alleviates Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury by Inhibiting the STING-NF-κB Inflammatory Pathway

Objectives Ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury seriously affects human health. Renal tubular epithelial cell injury and inflammation are important pathogenic mechanisms involved in I/R injury. Recent studies have shown that quercetin (QU) is one of the most effective natural products against inflammatory responses and is mainly used as an adjuvant treatment for chronic diseases in clinical practice. However, the effect of QU on renal I/R injury remains unclear. Methods The therapeutic effect of QU was evaluated in a mouse model of renal I/R injury in vivo, and its anti-inflammatory mechanisms were preliminarily investigated in Normal Rat Kidney-52E (NRK-52E) cells. Subsequently, STING knockout mice were used to verify the anti-inflammatory mechanism. Results Our results showed that QU alleviates renal injury and inflammation subsequent to I/R. In vitro, QU alleviated inflammatory responses induced by H2O2. Mechanistically, QU alleviated inflammation by inhibiting the STING/NF-κB pathway. Conclusion These results demonstrated that QU protected against renal I/R injury by suppressing inflammation via the STING-NF-κB axis, highlighting its therapeutic potential.