[Cancer-associated carbohydrate-binding protein galectin-3 and its therapeutic ligands]

Carbohydrates are proved to be involved in recognition processes, including adhesion between cells, adhesion of cells to the extracellular matrix, and specific recognition of cells by one another. Galectin-3 is a nonenzymatic carbohydrate-binding protein present in mammals, whose conserved carbohydrate-recognition domain preferentially binds to specific carbohydrate structures and plays an important role in biological and biochemical reactions. Substances developed with the specific structure of beta-galactose moieties or their analogues, including chemically modified carbohydrates, functional peptides and modified natural polysaccharide, have been evaluated as potent therapeutic ligands for galectin-3 and showed at different level their ability to interfere with carbohydrate-protein interactions and therefore, inhibit the cell-cell recognition and adhesion processes, which play an important role in tumor growth, progression and metastasis.