Galectin-3 as a Next-Generation Biomarker for Detecting Early Stage of Various Diseases

Abstract

Galectin-3 is a β-galactoside-binding lectin which is important in numerous biological activities in various organs, including cell proliferation, apoptotic regulation, inflammation, fibrosis, and host defense. Galectin-3 is predominantly located in the cytoplasm and expressed on the cell surface, and then often secreted into biological fluids, like serum and urine. It is also released from injured cells and inflammatory cells under various pathological conditions. Many studies have revealed that galectin-3 plays an important role as a diagnostic or prognostic biomarker for certain types of heart disease, kidney disease, viral infection, autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and tumor formation. In particular, it has been recognized that galectin-3 is extremely useful for detecting many of these diseases in their early stages. The purpose of this article is to review and summarize the recent literature focusing on the biomarker characteristics and long-term outcome predictions of galectin-3, in not only patients with various types of diseases, but associated animal models.

Evaluation of Galectin-3 as a Novel Diagnostic Biomarker in Patients with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

“…In particular, it has been recognized that galectin-3 is extremely useful for detecting many of these diseases in their early stages. 19 Galectin-3 is a potential mediator of the inflammation, macrophage migration, fibroblastic proliferation, and pathophysiological processes of HF. Oikonomou et al observed the role of Galectin-3 in myocardial remodeling, fibrosis, and clinical status of HF patients, and the possible association with increased central arterial stiffness and impaired ventriculoarterial coupling.…”

Mesenchymal Stem Cells Ameliorate Interstitial Fibrosis in Adenine-induced Nephropathy Based on Renal Proteomics

“…Extracellular galectin3 modulates important interactions between epithelial cells and the extracellular matrix and plays a role in the embryonic development of collecting ducts. In contrast, intracellular galectin3 is important for cell survival due to its ability to block the intrinsic apoptotic pathway, while intranuclear galectin3 promotes cell proliferation [28][29][30] . Our experiments proved that MSCs reduced the mRNA and protein expression of galectin3 in adenineinduced interstitial brosis kidney.…”

Galectin-3: Roles in Neurodevelopment, Neuroinflammation, and Behavior

“…Extracellular Galectin-3 binds to ligand via CRD and is involved in inflammation, cell to cell and cell to matrix interaction and function as Advanced glycation end products (AGE) receptor [29]. Galectin-3 N-terminal domain binds its ligand to protect from apoptosis [30].…”

“…Galectin-3 has numerous pivotal roles in autoimmunity [55,56], kidney disorders [57] immunometabolism, tumor progression [58][59][60][61]. Hara and coworkers reviewed the roles of Galectin-3 in the development of early stages of various diseases [29] In the nervous system different cells types express Galectin-3 in various conditions with versatile, sometimes antagonistic effects.…”

“…Galectin-3 appears to play one of the main roles in neuroinflammation associated with the pathogenesis of AD. It has been shown that stereotaxic administration of Aβ [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] into CA1 region of rat hippocampus induced inflammation and increased expression of Galectin-3 accompanied by the loss of spatial memory [126]. Furthermore, cognitive performance was improved by Galectin-3 gene deletion (APP/PS1; Gal-3 +/− mice) in APP/PS1 mice, prone to AD [117].…”