Toll-like receptors (TLRs) belong to a family of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). It is well known that TLRs play an essential role in activating innate and adaptive immune responses. TLRs are involved in mediating inflammatory responses and maintaining epithelial barrier homeostasis, and they are highly likely to activate various signalling pathways during cancer chemotherapy. For a long time, much research focused on the immune modulating function of TLRs in cancer genesis, pathology and therapeutic strategies. However, recent reports have suggested that except for the innate and adaptive immune responses that they initiate, TLRs can signal to induce regulated cell death (RCD), which also plays an important role in the antitumor process. TLR agonists also have been investigated as cancer therapeutic agents under clinical evaluation. In this review, we focused on the mechanism of RCD induced by TLR signals and the important role that they play in anticancer therapy combined with recent experimental and clinical trial data to discuss the possibility of TLRs as promising targets for cancer therapy. TLRs represent triggers of regulated cell death and targets for cancer therapy. The molecular mechanisms of TLR-induced RCD and relationship between TLR-signalling pathways and cancer remain to be investigated by further studies.

中文翻译：

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Toll样受体：调控细胞死亡的触发点和有希望的癌症治疗靶标。

Toll样受体（TLR）属于模式识别受体（PRR）家族。众所周知，TLR在激活先天和适应性免疫应答中起着至关重要的作用。TLRs参与介导炎症反应并维持上皮屏障稳态，并且在癌症化学疗法中极有可能激活各种信号通路。长期以来，许多研究集中在TLRs在癌症发生，病理学和治疗策略中的免疫调节功能上。但是，最近的报道表明，除了它们引发的先天性和适应性免疫反应外，TLR还可以发出信号来诱导受调节的细胞死亡（RCD），这在抗肿瘤过程中也起着重要的作用。在临床评估中，TLR激动剂也已作为癌症治疗剂进行了研究。在这篇综述中，我们集中于TLR信号诱导的RCD的机制及其在抗癌治疗中的重要作用，结合最近的实验和临床试验数据来讨论TLRs作为有希望的癌症治疗靶标的可能性。TLRs代表调节性细胞死亡的触发因素和癌症治疗的靶标。TLR诱导的RCD的分子机制以及TLR信号通路与癌症之间的关系仍有待进一步研究。