Effects of flavonoid quercetin on survival of motor neuron gene expression.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that results in muscle weakness and atrophy. To attenuate disease severity, drug development studies have been applied mainly to target the Survival of Motor Neuron 2 (SMN2) gene, which is an important modifier of SMA. Although several compounds have been tested, there is still no cure for SMA. In this study, SMN2-inducing effects of quercetin, an abundant flavonoid polyphenol in human diet, was investigated in the fibroblast cell lines of two SMA type I patients. Gene expression studies showed that quercetin upregulates SMN2 mRNA up to fourfold, but not the SMN protein level.