Initially, we aimed to reveal potential anti-ageing properties of
QUER (Fig. 1A shows its chemical formula). Therefore, young HFL-1
cells were continuously treated with 2 μg/ml QUER throughout their
lifespan. Although the young morphology of the QUER-treated cells
was maintained longer, QUER promoted a growth retardation of the
treated cultures. Consequently, we have tested a derivative of QUER,
namely QU-CAP (Fig. 1B shows its chemical formula) to examine
whether this retarded phenotype could be alleviated while maintaining
all the positive effects of QUER. Indeed, a minimal (less than 5%)
but still statistically significant increase of cellular lifespan was scored
upon QU-CAP treatment as compared to their control counterparts
(data not shown).