Human trichinellosis is acquired by eating raw or undercooked meats carrying muscle larvae of Trichinella spp. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are essential components of the innate immune system. However, little is known about the potential application of TLR agonists for immunotherapy against Trichinella spiralis (T. spiralis) infection. Here, we evaluated the effects of four TLR agonists (i.e., TLR3, TLR4, TLR8, and TLR9 agonists) on T. spiralis infection in mice. The reduction rate of worm burden showed that TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) significantly reduced T. spiralis infection rather than TLR4, TLR8, and TLR9 agonists (p < 0.05). Moreover, TLR3 showed a continuous high-level of expression during 6–35 days post infection (dpi). The levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin (IL)-2, and IL-6 increased significantly in mice serum compared with control group after treatment with TLR3 agonist at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 28, and 35 dpi (p < 0.05). A significant decreasing trend was also detected in levels of IL-10 and IL-4 after treatment with TLR3 agonist compared with control group at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 28, and 35 dpi (p < 0.05). Overall, this study suggested that TLR3-targeted therapies might be effective on worm burden reduction by regulation of the cytokine levels in the mice infected with T. spiralis.

人旋毛虫病是通过吃生或未煮熟的携带旋毛虫属肌肉幼虫的肉而获得的。Toll样受体（TLR）是先天免疫系统的重要组成部分。然而，关于TLR激动剂在针对旋毛虫（T. spiralis）感染的免疫疗法中的潜在应用知之甚少。在这里，我们评估了四种TLR激动剂（即TLR3，TLR4，TLR8和TLR9激动剂）对小鼠螺旋体感染的影响。蠕虫负担的减少率表明，TLR3激动剂poly（I：C）显着减少了螺旋螺旋体感染，而不是TLR4，TLR8和TLR9激动剂（p <0.05）。此外，TLR3在感染后（dpi）的6–35天期间显示出连续的高水平表达。TLR3激动剂在0、3、6、9、12、15、15时，与对照组相比，小鼠血清中干扰素-γ（IFN-γ），白介素（IL）-2和IL-6的水平明显增加。 18、21、28和35 dpi（p  <0.05）。与对照组相比，在0、3、6、9、12、15、18、21、28和35 dpi时，与对照组相比，TLR3激动剂治疗后的IL-10和IL-4水平也显着下降（p  <0.05）。总体而言，这项研究表明，针对TLR3的疗法可能通过调节感染螺旋螺旋体的小鼠体内的细胞因子水平来降低蠕虫负担。