Involvement of decreased Galectin‐3 expression in the pathogenesis and progression of prostate cancer

Abstract

Drosophila telomeres comprise DNA sequences that differ dramatically from those of other eukaryotes. Telomere functions, however, are similar to those found in telomerase‐based telomeres, even though the underlying mechanisms may differ. Drosophila telomeres use arrays of retrotransposons to maintain chromosome length, while nearly all other eukaryotes rely on telomerase‐generated short repeats. Regardless of the DNA sequence, several end‐binding proteins are evolutionarily conserved. Away from the end, the Drosophila telomeric and subtelomeric DNA sequences are complexed with unique combinations of proteins that also modulate chromatin structure elsewhere in the genome. Maintaining and regulating the transcriptional activity of the telomeric retrotransposons in Drosophila requires specific chromatin structures and, while telomeric silencing spreads from the terminal repeats in yeast, the source of telomeric silencing in Drosophila is the subterminal arrays. However, the subterminal arrays in both species may be involved in telomere–telomere associations and/or communication. BioEssays 30:25–37, 2008. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Tyrosine-phosphorylated Galectin-3 Protein Is Resistant to Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA) Cleavage

“…Not only the intensity of galectin-3 expression but also its intracellular distribution and extracellular concentration were found to be important for cancer progression. In human prostate cancer, galectin-3 expression was reported to be down-regulated with progressive stages (22). We demonstrated that although the levels of intact galectin-3 decreased, the levels of galectin-3 cleaved by proteases increased with progression of the prostate cancer (23).…”

Higher bone marrow LGALS3 expression is an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for overall survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

“…A variety of studies demonstrated a role of galectin-3 expression in tumor progression, 12,18 including hematological malignancies. 15,17,41 However, little is known about the prognostic implication of its expression in AML.…”

“…16 In addition, it may promote drug resistance in chronic myeloid leukemia. 17 In contrast, decreased galectin-3 expression is associated with tumor progressions 18 and poor prognosis in other cancers, such as gastric cancer 19 and clear cell renal carcinoma. 20 To date, little is known about the clinical implication of galectin-3 expression in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).…”

A Unique Galectin Signature in Human Prostate Cancer Progression Suggests Galectin-1 as a Key Target for Treatment of Advanced Disease

“…On the other hand, Gal-3 controls homotypic and heterotypic aggregation of prostate cancer cells (14)(15)(16) and controls their viability (17). Tumor cell expression of Gal-3 has been proposed to delineate the transition from benign stages to castration-resistant malignant disease (18) and its regulated expression is associated with promoter methylation (19). Silencing Gal-3 results in decreased migration, invasion, and proliferation of prostate cancer cells (20).…”