| Abstract: | Evaluation of: Mazurek N, Byrd JC, Sun Y, Ueno S, Bresalier RS. A galectin-3 sequence polymorphism confers TRAIL sensitivity to human breast cancer cells. Cancer DOI: 10.1002/cncr.26078 (2011) (Epub ahead of print).Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) binds to death receptors expressed on cancer cells and induces apoptosis. Triple-negative breast cancer cell lines are more sensitive to TRAIL or TRAIL-death receptor agonistic monoclonal antibody-induced apoptosis compared with HER-2/neu-overexpressing or luminal cell lines. The paper under evaluation sought to determine whether the His64/Pro64 polymorphism of galectin-3, which is associated with breast cancer incidence, affects sensitivity to TRAIL. None of five breast cancer cell lines homozygous for Pro64 galectin-3 were sensitive to TRAIL, but two out of two homozygous His64 cell lines and one out of two heterozygous His64 cell lines were sensitive. Transfection of galectin-3 null BT549 breast cancer cells with His64 galectin-3 rendered them sensitive to TRAIL, while Pro64 galectin-3-transfected cells remained resistant to TRAIL. This article highlights that galectin-3 receptor expression and genotype may be useful markers in predicting TRAIL or agonistic antibody sensitivity of breast cancer patients. |
