Galectin-9 in cancer therapy: from immune checkpoint ligand to promising therapeutic target

Minpu Zhang; Cun Liu; Ye Li; Huayao Li; Wenfeng Zhang; Jingyang Liu; Liquan Wang; Changgang Sun

doi:10.3389/fcell.2023.1332205

Galectin-9 in cancer therapy: from immune checkpoint ligand to promising therapeutic target

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2024 Jan 9:11:1332205. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1332205. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Minpu Zhang¹, Cun Liu², Ye Li³, Huayao Li², Wenfeng Zhang³, Jingyang Liu³, Liquan Wang⁴, Changgang Sun^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ College of First Clinical Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China.
² College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, China.
³ Faculty of Chinese Medicine and State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicines, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China.
⁴ Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Weifang People's Hospital, Weifang, China.
⁵ Department of Oncology, Weifang Traditional Chinese Hospital, Weifang, China.

Abstract

Galectin-9 (Gal-9) is a vital member of the galectin family, functioning as a multi-subtype galactose lectin with diverse biological roles. Recent research has revealed that Gal-9's interaction with tumors is an independent factor that influences tumor progression. Furthermore, Gal-9 in the immune microenvironment cross-talks with tumor-associated immune cells, informing the clarification of Gal-9's identity as an immune checkpoint. A thorough investigation into Gal-9's role in various cancer types and its interaction with the immune microenvironment could yield novel strategies for subsequent targeted immunotherapy. This review focuses on the latest advances in understanding the direct and indirect cross-talk between Gal-9 and hematologic malignancies, in addition to solid tumors. In addition, we discuss the prospects of Gal-9 in tumor immunotherapy, including its cross-talk with the ligand TIM-3 and its potential in immune-combination therapy.

Keywords: biological functions; galectin-9; immunotharapy; pan-cancer; therapeutic target.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973677, 82174222, 82305000), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2021LZY015) and Weifang Science and Technology Development Plan (2022GX008).