Galectins as modulators of tumour progression

By Fu-Tong Liu, Gabriel A. Rabinovich. Nature Reviews. Cancer, 2005

1,414 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Galectins are a family of animal lectins with diverse biological activities. They function both extracellularly, by interacting with cell-surface and extracellular matrix glycoproteins and glycolipids, and intracellularly, by interacting with cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins to modulate signalling pathways. Current research indicates that galectins have important roles in cancer; they contribute to neoplastic transformation, tumour cell survival, angiogenesis and tumour metastasis. They can modulate the immune and inflammatory responses and might have a key role helping tumours to escape immune surveillance. How do the different members of the Galectin family contribute to these diverse aspects of tumour biology?

Subfields: Immunology, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ac73853d9b25b13251997dce1cd901a742e3c3fc

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Citations in the corpus

Immunosuppressive strategies that are mediated by tumor cells. (2007, background): “Galectins are present in tumor cells and cancer-associated stroma in different tumor types, including melanoma, glioma, gastric cancer and breast carcinoma (129).”
Galectin-1: a small protein with major functions. (2006, background): “Gal-1 contributes to immune evasion by inducing apoptosis in effector T cells (Rubinstein, Alvarez et al., 2004; Liu and Rabinovich, 2005).”
The sweet and sour of cancer: glycans as novel therapeutic targets (2005, background): “leukocytes, resulting either in pro- or anti-inflammatory immune responses [14].”
DAMPs, PAMPs and alarmins: all we need to know about danger (2007, background): “Other molecules may be added to the list, including cathelicidins, defensins and eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) [51], galectins [52], thymosins [53], nucleolin [54], and annexins [55; and 56, this issue]; more will emerge with time.”
Galectin-3: an open-ended story. (2006, background): “For detailed information on galectin-3 in cancer, the reader is referred to several recent reviews [102,171,172,215,232].”
Nanomedicine in cancer therapy (2023, background): “Some galectins (especially galectin-1 and galectin-3) are overexpressed in a variety of tumors and can promote tumor metastasis by modulating cell adhesion, cell migration, and the immune response.(289) Balakrishnan et al.”
Protein-glycan interactions in the control of innate and adaptive immune responses (2008, background): “Galectin-3 is, as far as we know, unique in that it contains a CRD connected to a non-lectin N-terminal region (about 120 amino acids) that is responsible for oligomerization of the lectin and ligand cross-linkin”
Turning 'sweet' on immunity: galectin–glycan interactions in immune tolerance and inflammation (2009, background): “In addition, gene and protein expression profiles have frequently shown the upregulation of galectins in several tumours and metastatic lesions, which may be used to delineate a glycosylation signature that indicates poor prognosi”
Protein Glycosylation in Cancer (2015, background): “Galectins, which are soluble GBPs overexpressed in many types of cancer, represent a classic and well-studied example (20).”
Galectin-3, a Marker of Cardiac Fibrosis, Predicts Incident Heart Failure in the Community (2012, background): “In addition to its role in fibrosis in several organ systems, Gal-3 has also been associated with tumorigenesis in thyroid cancer and other malignancies (40).”
How dying cells alert the immune system to danger (2008, background): “Galectins are cytosolic lectins that can bind several cell-surface receptors, including CD2 and CD3 which can stimulate leukocyte”