Therapeutics: Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)

Patient sample and mouse studies suggest inhibiting TLR3 could help treat metastatic lung cancer. In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, high expression of TLR3 in tumor-adjacent lung tissues was associated with high neutrophil infiltration into the lung, high expression of pro-metastatic genes in tumor-adjacent lung tissues and poor survival. In mouse models of lung cancer and melanoma that metastasize to the lung, TLR3 knockout decreased lung metastasis, lung expression of pro-metastatic genes and neutrophil recruitment to the lungs and increased survival compared with normal TLR3 expression. Next steps could include testing TLR3 inhibitors in other models of metastatic lung cancer...