Characterisation of Galectin inhibitors in primary human blood
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The use of primary human leukocytes and other blood products to investigate the potential therapeutic effect of galectin inhibitors in fibrosis and cancer.
IRAS ID
295277
Contact name
Robert Slack
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Galecto Biotech ApS
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Galectins are a diverse family of proteins that are found in many cell types, are involved in a wide range of cellular processes and are thought to play a major role in some diseases. Specific members of the Galectin family are present at high levels in blood and in certain blood cells, and are thought to be responsible for the profibrotic signalling that may result in disease. Additionally, galectins are thought to be involved in the mechanism by which some tumours evade the body’s immune system making them important in cancer. Research conducted by Galecto Biotech is focussed on generating new drugs for the treatment of diseases where fibrosis is a key component, and understanding the cellular processes that are involved in disease development is a fundamental part of that research. We are looking to use human blood and blood products to allow the highest quality research into the role galectins play in these conditions using disease-relevant cells.
Following donation to the National Health Service Blood and Transplant unit, donated blood and blood by-products that are surplus to requirement are made available for research purposes. Donors give generic consent for use of their donation in research as part of the donation process and are not identifiable as donations are totally anonymised. We plan to use blood or blood products, that would otherwise be discarded, in our experiments to investigate galectin biology and test if drugs that disrupt galectin activity may be useful in the treatment of fibrotic diseases and cancer.
The aim of this study is therefore to examine the cellular mechanisms by which galectins exert their profibrotic or oncogenic effect in human cells, and determine the therapeutic potential that galectin inhibitors may have with a view to providing new treatments for disease.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SC/0238
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion