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Chemokines modulate glycan binding and the immunoregulatory activity of galectins. Commun Biol 2021; 4:1415. [PMID: 34931005 PMCID: PMC8688422 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02922-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Galectins are versatile glycan-binding proteins involved in immunomodulation. Evidence suggests that galectins can control the immunoregulatory function of cytokines and chemokines through direct binding. Here, we report on an inverse mechanism in which chemokines control the immunomodulatory functions of galectins. We show the existence of several specific galectin-chemokine binding pairs, including galectin-1/CXCL4. NMR analyses show that CXCL4 binding induces changes in the galectin-1 carbohydrate binding site. Consequently, CXCL4 alters the glycan-binding affinity and specificity of galectin-1. Regarding immunomodulation, CXCL4 significantly increases the apoptotic activity of galectin-1 on activated CD8+ T cells, while no effect is observed in CD4+ T cells. The opposite is found for another galectin-chemokine pair, i.e., galectin-9/CCL5. This heterodimer significantly reduces the galectin-9 induced apoptosis of CD4+ T cells and not of CD8+ T cells. Collectively, the current study describes an immunomodulatory mechanism in which specific galectin-chemokine interactions control the glycan-binding activity and immunoregulatory function of galectins.
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Immunosuppressive Roles of Galectin-1 in the Tumor Microenvironment. Biomolecules 2021; 11:biom11101398. [PMID: 34680031 PMCID: PMC8533562 DOI: 10.3390/biom11101398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2021] [Revised: 09/18/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Evasion of immune surveillance is an accepted hallmark of tumor progression. The production of immune suppressive mediators by tumor cells is one of the major mechanisms of tumor immune escape. Galectin-1 (Gal-1), a pivotal immunosuppressive molecule, is expressed by many types of cancer. Tumor-secreted Gal-1 can bind to glycosylated receptors on immune cells and trigger the suppression of immune cell function in the tumor microenvironment, contributing to the immune evasion of tumors. The aim of this review is to summarize the current literature on the expression and function of Gal-1 in the human tumor microenvironment, as well as therapeutics targeting Gal-1.
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Modenutti CP, Capurro JIB, Di Lella S, Martí MA. The Structural Biology of Galectin-Ligand Recognition: Current Advances in Modeling Tools, Protein Engineering, and Inhibitor Design. Front Chem 2019; 7:823. [PMID: 31850312 PMCID: PMC6902271 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/12/2019] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Galectins (formerly known as “S-type lectins”) are a subfamily of soluble proteins that typically bind β-galactoside carbohydrates with high specificity. They are present in many forms of life, from nematodes and fungi to animals, where they perform a wide range of functions. Particularly in humans, different types of galectins have been described differing not only in their tissue expression but also in their cellular location, oligomerization, fold architecture and carbohydrate-binding affinity. This distinct yet sometimes overlapping distributions and physicochemical attributes make them responsible for a wide variety of both intra- and extracellular functions, including tremendous importance in immunity and disease. In this review, we aim to provide a general description of galectins most important structural features, with a special focus on the molecular determinants of their carbohydrate-recognition ability. For that purpose, we structurally compare the human galectins, in light of recent mutagenesis studies and novel X-ray structures. We also offer a detailed description on how to use the solvent structure surrounding the protein as a tool to get better predictions of galectin-carbohydrate complexes, with a potential application to the rational design of glycomimetic inhibitory compounds. Finally, using Gal-1 and Gal-3 as paramount examples, we review a series of recent advances in the development of engineered galectins and galectin inhibitors, aiming to dissect the structure-activity relationship through the description of their interaction at the molecular level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlos P Modenutti
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN), CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Juan I Blanco Capurro
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN), CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Santiago Di Lella
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN), CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Marcelo A Martí
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN), CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Shi D, An X, Bai Q, Bing Z, Zhou S, Liu H, Yao X. Computational Insight Into the Small Molecule Intervening PD-L1 Dimerization and the Potential Structure-Activity Relationship. Front Chem 2019; 7:764. [PMID: 31781546 PMCID: PMC6861162 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2019] [Accepted: 10/24/2019] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, small-molecule compounds have been reported to block the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction by inducing the dimerization of PD-L1. All these inhibitors had a common scaffold and interacted with the cavity formed by two PD-L1 monomers. This special interactive mode provided clues for the structure-based drug design, however, also showed limitations for the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors with new scaffolds. In this study, we revealed the structure-activity relationship of the current small-molecule inhibitors targeting dimerization of PD-L1 by predicting their binding and unbinding mechanism via conventional molecular dynamics and metadynamics simulation. During the binding process, the representative inhibitors (BMS-8 and BMS-1166) tended to have a more stable binding mode with one PD-L1 monomer than the other and the small-molecule inducing PD-L1 dimerization was further stabilized by the non-polar interaction of Ile54, Tyr56, Met115, Ala121, and Tyr123 on both monomers and the water bridges involved in ALys124. The unbinding process prediction showed that the PD-L1 dimerization kept stable upon the dissociation of ligands. It's indicated that the formation and stability of the small-molecule inducing PD-L1 dimerization was the key factor for the inhibitory activities of these ligands. The contact analysis, R-group based quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis and molecular docking further suggested that each attachment point on the core scaffold of ligands had a specific preference for pharmacophore elements when improving the inhibitory activities by structural modifications. Taken together, the results in this study could guide the structural optimization and the further discovery of novel small-molecule inhibitors targeting PD-L1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danfeng Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Xiaoli An
- State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Qifeng Bai
- School of Basic Medical Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Zhitong Bing
- School of Basic Medical Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
- Institute of Modern Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
| | - Shuangyan Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
- School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Huanxiang Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Xiaojun Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
- State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
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Zhao Y, Wei A, Zhang H, Chen X, Wang L, Zhang H, Yu X, Yuan Q, Zhang J, Wang S. α2,6-Sialylation mediates hepatocellular carcinoma growth in vitro and in vivo by targeting the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Oncogenesis 2017; 6:e343. [PMID: 28553930 PMCID: PMC5523073 DOI: 10.1038/oncsis.2017.40] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2016] [Revised: 03/07/2017] [Accepted: 04/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Abnormal sialylation due to overexpression of sialyltransferases has been associated with tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Although ST6Gal-I influences cancer persistence and progression by affecting various receptors, the underlying mechanisms and mediators remain largely obscure, especially in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We found that ST6Gal-I expression was markedly upregulated in HCC tissues and cells, high levels being associated with aggressive phenotype and poor prognosis. Furthermore, we examined the roles and mechanisms of ST6Gal-I in HCC tumorigenesis and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. ST6Gal-I overexpression promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of Huh-7 cells, whereas its knockdown restricted these abilities in MHCC97-H cells. Additionally, in a mouse xenograft model, ST6Gal-I-knockdown MHCC97-H cells formed significantly smaller tumors, implying that ST6Gal-I overexpression can induce HCC cell malignant transformation. Importantly, enhanced HCC tumorigenesis and metastasis by ST6Gal-I may be associated with Wnt/β-catenin signaling promotion, including β-catenin nuclear transition and upregulation of downstream molecules. Together, our results suggest a role for ST6Gal-I in promoting the growth and invasion of HCC cells through the modulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling molecules, and that ST6Gal-I might be a promising marker for prognosis and therapy of HCC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Y Zhao
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - A Wei
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - H Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - X Chen
- School of Life Science and Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Province, China
| | - L Wang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - H Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - X Yu
- Department of Pathology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Q Yuan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
| | - J Zhang
- School of Life Science and Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Province, China
| | - S Wang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Glycobiology, Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China
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