MMP2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Yuan et al. showed that the survival rates in HCC patients improved significantly as a function of increased TLR3 and IRF3 expression levels.439 Moreover, IRF3 was positively associated with TLR3 expression in HCC tissues, which may present a synergistic effect on apoptosis and restrain HCC cells proliferation, MMP2 expression, and angiogenesis.439 On the other hand, other studies have illustrated that IRF3 has the potential to promote HCC progression.