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Production and characterization of galectin-3 mutant
Dubanych, Yurii ; Vaněk, Ondřej (advisor) ; Ječmen, Tomáš (referee)
Natural killer cells are large granular lymphocytes of innate immunity that are characterized by the ability to kill cancer and virus-damaged cells without prior activation. Cytotoxic functions of NK cells are regulated on the one hand through surface receptors recognizing MHC-I molecules, on the other hand by the presence of a set of activating and inhibitory receptors that are under normal conditions in balance with each other. Therefore, the fate of the target cell depends not only on the expression of MHC-I, but also on the expression of ligands that activate NK cell receptors. One of the activating receptors of NK cells is NKp30. Three specific cellular ligands have been discovered for NKp30: human BCL-2-associated athanogen 6 (BAG-6, also known as BAT3), tumour antigen B7-H6, and the newly discovered ligand galectin-3. All these ligands are often expressed by cancer cells, where BAG-6 and Gal-3 inhibit NK cell functions, which may be a mechanism for tumour escape from the immune system. Therefore, Gal-3 is a new potential drug target that, by inhibiting Gal-3, can help the immune system defend itself against malignantly transformed cells. This bachelor's thesis includes the verification of the effect of the Cys173 - Ser173 mutation in the carbohydrate recognition domain of galectin-3 on the...
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The role of galectins in cancer cell invasiveness
Remišová, Michaela ; Brábek, Jan (advisor) ; Kovář, Marek (referee)
Galectins are family of β-galactosidase binding proteins that serve many functions in all kind of mammalian cells. In the past years galectins, namely galectin-1 and galectin-3, have been revealed to play a major role in various cancer processes including cancer cell invasiveness, a process indispensable for the formation of metastasis. Both extracellular and intracellular forms of galectins modify the process of invasiveness in various ways, through interacting with different components of the cell or of the cell signalling pathways. The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to summarize mechanisms by which galectins promote cancer cell invasiveness. Keywords: galectins, galectin-1, galectin-3, invasiveness, cancer, metastasis
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