Trichinella spiralis and Tumors: Cause, Coincidence or Treatment?

Abstract

Conventional therapeutic strategies for tumors have had limited success, and innovative and more effective approaches to treatment are urgently required. The ancient idea that various biological, bacterial, yeast, viral, and parasitic agents can be used as cancer therapeutics has gradually attracted considerable interest. Certain parasites have been widely discussed in association with human and animal tumors. Many researches have provided proofs that Trichinella spiralis (T. spiralis) possesses antitumor activities. The antitumor effect of T. spiralis was first described in the 1970s. However, its research has been inconsistent, and little progress has been made in this field. Therefore, the mechanisms underlying these inhibitory effects are still unclear, and convincing evidence of the links between T. spiralis and the prevention or treatment of tumors from clinical trials is absent. Meanwhile, some other researches also suggested that T. spiralis may cause or contribute to coinfection with a tumors. In this review, evidence for T. spiralis to act as a pro- or antitumorigenic agent is summarized and discussed, in hope of contributing to a better understanding of the relations between T. spiralis and tumors.

The Apoptotic Effect of Trichinella spiralis Infection Against Experimentally Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…In HCC-T. spiralis group, Bcl-2 expression 20 days from the onset of tumor formation was higher than that of 30 and 40 days which indicates that T. spiralis apoptotic effect on HCC had increased with time. Liao et al, (2018) mentioned that the extent of the decrease in the tumor growth was different according to the inoculation time after infection with T. spiralis. Infection with T. spiralis achieved a statistically significant increase in the survival time of mice inoculated with sarcoma 180 tumor cells on the 28 days p.i.…”

Effects of Trichinella spiralis and its excretory/secretory products on autophagy of host muscle cells in vivo and in vitro

“…While coinfection of T . spiralis with cancer and Th2-polarized responses induced by Trichinella infection may not have an antitumor effect but promote tumor occurrence or recurrence [ 43 ]. However, further studies should be conducted to examine whether the dual effect exerted by T .…”

A Study of Immunotherapeutic Efficacy of Trichinella Spiralis Excretory-Secretory Proteins in Murine Trichinellosis

“…The protective effects involved both adults and larvae and T. spiralis ES proteins offer promising targets for vaccines development. The therapeutic effects of ES products of T. spiralis were tested in the amelioration of autoimmune, allergic and malignant diseases in vitro and in animal models (Liao et al, 2018). Also, ES products used for treatment of colitis (Smith et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2014), experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (Vukman et al, 2016), type 1 diabetes (Liu et al, 2009) and rheumatoid arthritis (Pineda et al, 2012).…”