Month: September 2024

Nature, Technology

A new approach which enables of accurately detecting Canser Stem Cells (CSCs)

A group from UMR INSERM 1308 CAPTuR, Faculty of Medicine, University of Limoges, Limoges, France has reported about a new approach which enables of accurately detecting Canser Stem Cells (CSCs).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-024-02839-9

A combination of plant lectins (MIX: UEA-1 and GSL-I) was used as a new approach to detect CSCs from a heterogeneous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) population.

It was demonstrated that the combination of those lectins recognizing glycosylated pattern exposed on CSCs were more efficient for detecting and sorting CSCs than CD133.
CD133 is know as a CSCs marker.

Nature

Galectin-8 alters non-canonical TGF-β response in CRC cells and suppresses CRC progression

A group from Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan has reported about a glycan-binding protein modulated the TGF-β-driven signaling and metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11375092/

This study demonstrate that galectin-8 alters non-canonical TGF-β response in CRC cells and suppresses CRC progression, although Galectin-8 is not a canonical regand of TGF-β Receprtor.

In detail, in the absence of galectin-8, TGF-β binds to type II TGF-β receptor (TβRII), thereby promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
In the presence of galectin-8, galectin-8 binds to TβRII through galactosylaeted-glycans, resulting in a decrease of TGF-β signaling-mediated EMT.
It was also shown that galectin-8 expression is downregulated during CRC progression.
The expression of galectin-8 is significantly lower in T4 stage than that in T1 stage.