Galectin-3, a rising star in modulating microglia activation under conditions of neurodegeneration

• Published in: Cell death & disease Vol. 13; no. 7; pp. 628 - 11
• Main Authors: García-Revilla, Juan, Boza-Serrano, Antonio, Espinosa-Oliva, Ana M., Soto, Manuel Sarmiento, Deierborg, Tomas, Ruiz, Rocío, de Pablos, Rocío M., Burguillos, Miguel Angel, Venero, Jose L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20.07.2022; Springer Nature B.V; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/420/256; 692/699/375/365; Alzheimer Disease - genetics; Alzheimer's disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Antibodies; Basic Medicine; Binding sites; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell Biology; Cell Culture; Galectin 3 - genetics; Galectin-3; Gene expression; Genotype & phenotype; Glycoproteins; Humans; Huntingtons disease; Immunology; Life Sciences; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper; Microglia; Movement disorders; Multiple sclerosis; Neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroprotection; Neurosciences; Neurotoxicity; Neurovetenskaper; Parkinson Disease; Parkinson's disease; Pattern recognition receptors; Phenotypes; Proteins; Review; Review Article; TLR4 protein; Toll-like receptors; Transcriptomics; Traumatic brain injury
• ISSN: 2041-4889; 2041-4889
• DOI: 10.1038/s41419-022-05058-3

The advent of high-throughput single-cell transcriptomic analysis of microglia has revealed different phenotypes that are inherently associated with disease conditions. A common feature of some of these activated phenotypes is the upregulation of galectin-3. Representative examples of these phenotypes include disease-associated microglia (DAM) and white-associated microglia (WAM), whose role(s) in neuroprotection/neurotoxicity is a matter of high interest in the microglia community. In this review, we summarise the main findings that demonstrate the ability of galectin-3 to interact with key pattern recognition receptors, including, among others, TLR4 and TREM2 and the importance of galectin-3 in the regulation of microglia activation. Finally, we discuss increasing evidence supporting the involvement of this lectin in the main neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, and stroke.