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

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common type of cancer. Prognosis of HCC remains unsatisfactory. Therefore, developing new therapeutic modalities is still mandatory. Tumor biotherapy is a novel concept developed as a therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. There is a similarity between the regulatory mechanism of Trichinella spiralis nurse cell formation and tumor cell apoptosis signal regulation. Objectives: Induction of apoptosis by T. spiralis can represent a new strategy for tumor treatment. Methods: Experimental animals were divided in four groups; negative control (GI), T. spiralis infected (GII), induced HCC (GIII) and HCC then infected with T. spiralis (GIV). The apoptotic effect of T. spiralis infection was assessed by histopathological and immunohistochemical staining of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2). Results: We found higher survival rate of rats and decreased weight of their livers with no nodules in HCC-T. spiralis group as compared to HCC group. Improvement of the dysplastic changes and increased apoptotic bodies which was confirmed by decreased expression of Bcl-2 reported in HCC-T. spiralis group. Conclusion: Trichinella-induced apoptosis can be a contributing mechanism of the anti-tumor effect of T. spiralis infection. Our results showed a certain level of decreased progression of the tumor in HCC-T. spiralis group as indicated by increased rate of apoptosis and subsequently had a positive impact on the survival of rats.

Trichinella-induced immunomodulation: Another tale of helminth success

“… Elhasawy et al (2021) showed that T. spiralis infection in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) animal model produced a certain level of decreased progression of the tumor with increased rate of apoptosis as shown by the decreased expression of Bcl-2 at 30- and 40-days post-infection and subsequently had a positive impact on the survival of rats. Other studies involving the anti-tumor effect of Trichinella infection in different tumor models are reviewed by Liao et al (2018) .…”

Trichinella spiralis as a Potential Antitumor Agent: An Update

“…Due to the high mortality rate and high risk of recurrence after treatment, new treatment methods are mandatory (Ringelhan et al, 2018;McGlynn et al, 2021). The regulatory mechanism of T. spiralis nurse cell formation is similar to tumor cell apoptosis signal regulation (Elhasawy et al, 2021). Trichinella spiralis nurse cell formation is a complex process and involves differentiation and cell cycle arrest of infected muscle cells.…”

Therapeutic effect of date palm extract on ccl4 induced HCC in rat

“…The first group is the negative control group, which was left untreated. For the other three groups, carbon tetra chloride was employed at a dose of 1 ml/kg twice a week for three months to develop HCC [5]. Rats in the positive control group received no further treatment and in the palm date group received 400 mg/kg body weight per day of date fruit extract [6].…”