Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention
The first studies suggesting that abnormal expression of galectins is associated with cancer were published more than 30 years ago. Today, the role of galectins in cancer is relatively well established. We know that galectins play an active role in many types of cancer by regulating cell growth, con...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Cells |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/12/3/437 |
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| author | Camille Fuselier Alyssa Dumoulin Alex Paré Rita Nehmé Samy Ajarrag Philippine Granger Joly de Boissel David Chatenet Nicolas Doucet Yves St-Pierre |
| author_facet | Camille Fuselier Alyssa Dumoulin Alex Paré Rita Nehmé Samy Ajarrag Philippine Granger Joly de Boissel David Chatenet Nicolas Doucet Yves St-Pierre |
| author_sort | Camille Fuselier |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The first studies suggesting that abnormal expression of galectins is associated with cancer were published more than 30 years ago. Today, the role of galectins in cancer is relatively well established. We know that galectins play an active role in many types of cancer by regulating cell growth, conferring cell death resistance, or inducing local and systemic immunosuppression, allowing tumor cells to escape the host immune response. However, most of these studies have focused on very few galectins, most notably galectin-1 and galectin-3, and more recently, galectin-7 and galectin-9. Whether other galectins play a role in cancer remains unclear. This is particularly true for placental galectins, a subgroup that includes galectin-13, -14, and -16. The role of these galectins in placental development has been well described, and excellent reviews on their role during pregnancy have been published. At first sight, it was considered unlikely that placental galectins were involved in cancer. Yet, placentation and cancer progression share several cellular and molecular features, including cell invasion, immune tolerance and vascular remodeling. The development of new research tools and the concomitant increase in database repositories for high throughput gene expression data of normal and cancer tissues provide a new opportunity to examine the potential involvement of placental galectins in cancer. In this review, we discuss the possible roles of placental galectins in cancer progression and why they should be considered in cancer studies. We also address challenges associated with developing novel research tools to investigate their protumorigenic functions and design highly specific therapeutic drugs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:49:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-eb5f73b1f07b46fd88ff34294636ba21 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4409 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:49:36Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cells |
| spelling | doaj.art-eb5f73b1f07b46fd88ff34294636ba212023-11-16T16:21:38ZengMDPI AGCells2073-44092023-01-0112343710.3390/cells12030437Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More AttentionCamille Fuselier0Alyssa Dumoulin1Alex Paré2Rita Nehmé3Samy Ajarrag4Philippine Granger Joly de Boissel5David Chatenet6Nicolas Doucet7Yves St-Pierre8INRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaINRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 531 Boul. des Prairies, Laval, QC H7 V 1B7, CanadaThe first studies suggesting that abnormal expression of galectins is associated with cancer were published more than 30 years ago. Today, the role of galectins in cancer is relatively well established. We know that galectins play an active role in many types of cancer by regulating cell growth, conferring cell death resistance, or inducing local and systemic immunosuppression, allowing tumor cells to escape the host immune response. However, most of these studies have focused on very few galectins, most notably galectin-1 and galectin-3, and more recently, galectin-7 and galectin-9. Whether other galectins play a role in cancer remains unclear. This is particularly true for placental galectins, a subgroup that includes galectin-13, -14, and -16. The role of these galectins in placental development has been well described, and excellent reviews on their role during pregnancy have been published. At first sight, it was considered unlikely that placental galectins were involved in cancer. Yet, placentation and cancer progression share several cellular and molecular features, including cell invasion, immune tolerance and vascular remodeling. The development of new research tools and the concomitant increase in database repositories for high throughput gene expression data of normal and cancer tissues provide a new opportunity to examine the potential involvement of placental galectins in cancer. In this review, we discuss the possible roles of placental galectins in cancer progression and why they should be considered in cancer studies. We also address challenges associated with developing novel research tools to investigate their protumorigenic functions and design highly specific therapeutic drugs.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/12/3/437galectinsplacentacancer |
| spellingShingle | Camille Fuselier Alyssa Dumoulin Alex Paré Rita Nehmé Samy Ajarrag Philippine Granger Joly de Boissel David Chatenet Nicolas Doucet Yves St-Pierre Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention Cells galectins placenta cancer |
| title | Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention |
| title_full | Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention |
| title_fullStr | Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention |
| title_full_unstemmed | Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention |
| title_short | Placental Galectins in Cancer: Why We Should Pay More Attention |
| title_sort | placental galectins in cancer why we should pay more attention |
| topic | galectins placenta cancer |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/12/3/437 |
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