Galectins, The Lower Invertebrates' Lectins as Biomakers and Treatments of Head and Neck Cancer

Kyle J. Norton

Galectin, a family of evolutionary conserved animal lectin found in lower invertebrates to mammals may have a protective and potential effect in reduced risk and treatment of head and neck cancer and acted as biomakers through their binding specificity for β-galactoside sugars activity, some scientists opinionated.

Head and neck cancer (HNSCC) is medical condition characterized by irregular cell growth in the tissue of the mouth, nose, throat, larynx, sinuses, or salivary glands. At the later stage, the cancerous cells can travel a distance away to infect other healthy tissues and organs.

According to the statistic, risk of the cancer  increases with age and are most common in patients between 50 and 70 years old.

In the study of the effect of  in contribution of the prevalent risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs), researchers found that application of galectins express a significant effect in reduced head and neck incidence through inhibited cell proliferation, induced cell death, and cell migration and in the modulation of various functions of the immune system.

Galectins's derivative galectins 1, with function as a key player in a novel stromal regulatory reaction  inhibited abnormal formation and expansion of cancer through deregulation of the multiple signaling pathways and displayed a strong activity in driving immune evasion in tumor site.

Application of galectins also exerted a strong effect in inhibition of tumors cell growth and differentiation and demonstrated a strong effect in altered in some tumors with aggressive phenotype.

Interestingly, in further observation of the immunoblotting, and immunohistochemical analysis, galectins, carbohydrate-binding proteins may have a potential to act as biologic and differentiation markers in HNSCC.

In fact, galectin-1 and galectin-3, the galectins family derivatives were found to associate closely in most HNSCC cell lines and primary tumor specimens, in the evaluation of the effects in 14 HNSCC cell lines and four primary tumor specimens.

Precisely, galectin-1 expression was detected in the basal layer of normal adjacent mucosa, in connective tissue stroma, and at the periphery of invasive tumor islands and  galectin-3 localized to superficial mucosal layers, and adjacent to keratin pearls in invasive carcinoma.

In other words, Galectins localized to the cell surface demonstrated a significant activity in regulated HNSCC tumors in expression of cancer cell cellular process, including induction of cell apoptosis.

Dr. Gillenwater A, the lead author after taking account of other con founders said, "The expression pattern of galectins appears to be associated with degree of squamous differentiation, suggesting a potential role for galectins as biologic and differentiation markers in HNSCC".

Additionally, the study to investigate whether an increase in malignancy level is accompanied by significant modifications of the expression of galectin-1, galectin-3, and Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (T antigen) as well as the expression of binding sites for these three markers in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) indicated that the epithelial tissues in HNSCC exhibited very significantly (P < 0.01 to P < 0. 0001) lower amounts of galectin-1, galectin-3, and T antigen and their respective binding sites in compared to normal counterparts.

The expression of the biomakers indicated above in tumors of the larynx differed very significantly in compared to all the other tumor types.

A loss of differentiation in the HNSCCs is accompanied first by the loss of expression of galectin-3 and galectin-3-reactive sites and then by that of the T antigen and its binding site(s). 

The loss of only galetins 3 expression is also an indication of distinguished the negative lymph node from the positive lymph node HNSCCs

T antigen is a key early protein essential for both driving viral replication and inducing cellular transformation.

Over expression of galectin-# has been found to involve in numerous degenerative processes within the body, including cancer proliferation/ metastasis, heart failure, chronic inflammation, fibrosis and related organ failure.

After summarizing the expression of galetecins and its derivative in tumor aggression, Dr. Choufani G, the lead scientists said, "The decrease in the extent of expression of galectin-3 and galectin-3-reactive sites, T antigen and T antigen-binding sites, and, to a lesser extent, galectin-1 and galectin-1-reactive sites correlates significantly with an increasing level of clinically detectable HNSCC aggressiveness".

The information findings suggested that galetecins, a family of evolutionary conserved animal lectins not only have a therapeutic effect in reduced risk and treatment of head and neck cancer and may be considered as biomaker in determined the aggressiveness, stage and grade of the tumor site.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrients
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published on line, including world wide health, ezine articles, article base, healthblogs, selfgrowth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bio science, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Galectins as modulators of tumor progression in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas by Saussez S1, Camby I, Toubeau G, Kiss R.(PubMed)
(2) Expression of galectins in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma by Gillenwater A1, Xu XC, el-Naggar AK, Clayman GL, Lotan R.(PubMed)
(3) The levels of expression of galectin-1, galectin-3, and the Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen and their binding sites decrease as clinical aggressiveness increases in head and neck cancers by Choufani G1, Nagy N, Saussez S, Marchant H, Bisschop P, Burchert M, Danguy A, Louryan S, Salmon I, Gabius HJ, Kiss R, Hassid S.(PubMed)