Overexpression of galectin2 (LGALS2) predicts a better prognosis in human breast cancer

Mandika Chetry; Adheesh Bhandari; Ruiling Feng; Xinming Song; Pintian Wang; Jing Lin

Overexpression of galectin2 (LGALS2) predicts a better prognosis in human breast cancer

Am J Transl Res. 2022 Apr 15;14(4):2301-2316. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Mandika Chetry¹, Adheesh Bhandari^{2

3}, Ruiling Feng¹, Xinming Song¹, Pintian Wang¹, Jing Lin¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College Shantou 515041, Guangdong, China.
² Department of Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang, China.
³ Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Primera Hospital Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal.

PMID: 35559406
PMCID: PMC9091085

Abstract

Background: Galectins (LGALS) are a family of carbohydrate-binding proteins, and LGALS family members have shown prognostic roles in various types of cancers. However, the prognostic significance of some LGALS family members has not been studied in breast malignancy.

Methods: The prognostic value of LGALS family mRNA expression in breast cancer patients was investigated according to distinct clinicopathological features (including lymph node, intrinsic subtype, pathological grade, HER2, and TP53 status) using the Kaplan-Meier plotter database. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression of LGALS in breast cancer and normal breast cells. The aberrant expression of specific LGALS and its correlation with breast cancer outcomes remains elusive. In the present analysis, we comprehensively explored an immunohistochemistry-based map of protein expression profiles in normal tissues, cancer, and cell lines from the widely available Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Immunohistochemistry was applied to evaluate the expression of LGALS between cancer and normal tissues.

Results: Our results showed that overexpression of LGALS2 mRNA were correlated with satisfactory overall survival among all breast cancer patients. Furthermore, LGALS2 and LGALS4 expression correlated with a better overall survival (OS) in grade III breast cancer patients; LGALS2 also predicted a better OS in basal-like subtype patients, luminal B patients, HER2-overexpressing patients, TP53 mutated and wild breast cancer patients. Notably, the mRNA and protein expression levels of LGALS2 were decreased in cancer cells compared with normal cells (P<0.05). Furthermore, LGALS2 expression in immunostaining score was lower in cancer tissues than in normal tissues (P<0.005).

Conclusion: In conclusion, LGALS2 has potential as a valuable biomarker for envisaging a satisfactory prognosis in patients with breast tumours, particularly those with luminal and basal B types, all stages and grade III tumours.

Keywords: Prognosis; breast cancer; galectins (LGALS).