Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, IMET, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2012;946:21-36. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-0106-3_2.
Galectins constitute an evolutionary conserved family of ß-galactoside-binding proteins, ubiquitous in mammals and other vertebrate taxa, invertebrates, and fungi. Since their discovery in the 1970s, their biological roles, initially understood as limited to recognition of carbohydrate ligands in embryogenesis and development, have expanded in recent years by the discovery of their immunoregulatory activities. A gradual paradigm shift has taken place in the past few years through the recognition that galectins also bind glycans on the surface of potentially pathogenic microbes, and function as recognition and effector factors in innate immunity. Further, an additional level of functional complexity has emerged with the most recent findings that some parasites "subvert" the recognition roles of the vector/host galectins for successful attachment or invasion.
半乳糖凝集素是一个进化上保守的β-半乳糖苷结合蛋白家族，在哺乳动物和其他脊椎动物、无脊椎动物和真菌中普遍存在。自上世纪 70 年代发现以来，它们的生物学功能最初被理解为仅限于胚胎发生和发育过程中识别碳水化合物配体，近年来由于发现其具有免疫调节活性而得到扩展。通过认识到半乳糖凝集素还可以结合潜在致病微生物表面的糖链，并作为先天免疫中的识别和效应因子，过去几年中发生了逐渐的范式转变。此外，最近的发现表明，一些寄生虫“颠覆”了载体/宿主半乳糖凝集素的识别作用，从而成功附着或入侵，这又增加了一个功能复杂性的层次。
