Exploring the role of quercetin on doxorubicin and lapatinib-mediated cellular and mitochondrial responses using <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in silico</i> studies

Doxorubicin (DOX) and lapatinib (LAP) have been reported to cause liver toxicity. The roles of mitochondrial and cellular responses in DOX and LAP mediated-hepatotoxicity have not been investigated with or without quercetin (QUE) in HepG2 cells sensitive to mitochondrial damage (high-glucose or galactose media) in addition to <i>in silico</i> studies. Our results revealed that cytosolic pathways might play role a in DOX-induced cytotoxicity rather than mitochondria. QUE exacerbated DOX-induced ATP depletion in both environments. Our data also indicated that cytosolic and mitochondrial pathways might play a role in LAP-induced cytotoxicity. Incubating QUE with LAP increased ATP levels in high-glucose media. Therefore, QUE might have protective effect against LAP-induced cytotoxicity resulting from cytosolic pathways. The findings from <i>in vitro</i> experiments that QUE increased DOX or LAP-induced mitochondrial dysfunction were confirmed by the results from <i>in silico</i> studies indicating that QUE incubated with LAP or DOX might increase mitochondrial dysfunction.