Overexpression of the galectin-3 during tumor progression in prostate cancer and its clinical implications

Jiamin Gao; Tianyu Li; Zengnan Mo; Yanling Hu; Qiaoyong Yi; Rongquan He; Xiujuan Zhu; Xianguo Zhou; Shangyang She; Yingchun Chen

Overexpression of the galectin-3 during tumor progression in prostate cancer and its clinical implications

Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2018 Feb 1;11(2):839-846. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Jiamin Gao^{1

2}, Tianyu Li^{1

3}, Zengnan Mo^{1

3

2}, Yanling Hu^{1

2}, Qiaoyong Yi^{1

2}, Rongquan He^{1

2}, Xiujuan Zhu^{1

2}, Xianguo Zhou^{1

2}, Shangyang She⁴, Yingchun Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Medical University Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory for Genomic and Personalized Medicine, Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Genomic and Personalized Medicine Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
³ Department of Urology and Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
⁴ Clinical Laboratory, Guangxi Maternal and Child Health Hospital Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.

PMID: 31938173
PMCID: PMC6958038

Abstract

Management of prostate cancer, especially advanced prostate cancer, remains clinically challenging and requires the identification of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets that can be exploited to improve patient outcome. Galectin-3 (gal-3) is a carbohydrate-binding protein involved in cancer progression and metastasis, including prostate tissues. Gal-3 function is regulated by proteolytic cleavage and the cleaved gal-3 is implicated in tumor progression. This study is the first to determine gal-3 expressions with two monoclonal anti-gal-3 antibodies in prostate tissues to distinguish expression patterns between intact and cleaved gal-3 and analyze their clinical relevance. Our results showed gal-3 cleavage occurred in prostate cancer but not normal prostate. Gal-3 presented in tumor tissues was mainly the cleaved form that can be detected by the anti-gal-3 antibody targeting C terminal. The cleaved gal-3, but not the intact gal-3, was increased in prostate cancer compared to normal prostate tissues and positively associated with malignance, tumor progression and metastasis. In addition, the expression of cleaved gal-3 was closely related to PSA level, indicating a PSA-mediated degradation of intact gal-3 in prostate cancer. In summary, our findings suggested the cleaved gal-3 could be a valuable diagnostic biomarker and a therapeutic target for the treatment of prostate cancer, especially advanced metastatic prostate cancer.

Keywords: Galectin-3; cleaved; clinical; monoclonal antibody; prostate cancer.