Protein / target

Galectin-3

Encoded byLGALS3P17931Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot

UniProt: P17931 Ensembl: ENSG00000131981 HGNC: HGNC:6563 NCBI Gene: 3958

Clinical-stage

Therapeutic maturity

Clinical candidates

Small-molecule tractable

Druggability

Advanced Clinical

Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Molecular condensate scaffold

Strongest disease association

Osteoarthritis

Via encoding gene LGALS3 · Genetic evidence · score 0.26

Therapeutic position

Clinically advancing target

Small molecules

Research activity

Emerging research

4 papers · latest 2024

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function overview

Galactose-specific lectin which binds IgE.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Galactose-specific lectin which binds IgE. May mediate with the alpha-3, beta-1 integrin the stimulation by CSPG4 of endothelial cells migration. Together with DMBT1, required for terminal differentiation of columnar epithelial cells during early embryogenesis (By similarity). In the nucleus: acts as a pre-mRNA splicing factor. Involved in acute inflammatory responses including neutrophil activation and adhesion, chemoattraction of monocytes macrophages, opsonization of apoptotic neutrophils, and activation of mast cells. Together with TRIM16, coordinates the recognition of membrane damage with mobilization of the core autophagy regulators ATG16L1 and BECN1 in response to damaged endomembranes

Subcellular location

CytoplasmNucleusSecreted

Domains and Gene Ontology detail (50)

Domains & features

Galectin

Gene Ontology

Ccell surface
Ccytoplasm
Ccytosol
Cextracellular exosome
Cextracellular matrix
Cextracellular region
Cextracellular space
Cficolin-1-rich granule membrane
Cimmunological synapse
Cmembrane
Cmitochondrial inner membrane
Cnucleoplasm

250 aa · 26 kDa

Biological roles

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Cell migrationGOImmune signallingUniProt · GO

View supporting evidence

Cell migration

·eosinophil chemotaxis
·macrophage chemotaxis
·monocyte chemotaxis
·mononuclear cell migration

Immune signalling

·Galactose-specific lectin which binds IgE. May mediate with the alpha-3, beta-1 integrin…
·innate immune response
·negative regulation of NK T cell activation
·negative regulation of T cell activation via T cell receptor contact with antigen bound…

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.

Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene LGALS3

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene LGALS3that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.

Osteoarthritis

0.28Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.16

Joint Diseases

0.26Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.16

Melanoma

0.24Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.14

COVID-19

0.20Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13

Neoplasms

0.15Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.12 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)

OsteoarthritisLimited support

0.28

agreement 0.14–0.42

Genetic92%Literature8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.16 · 2 independent evidence families

Joint DiseasesLimited support

0.26

agreement 0.12–0.40

Genetic98%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.16 · 2 independent evidence families

MelanomaPreliminary

0.24

agreement 0.09–0.40

Literature52%Clinical48%

Open Targets aggregate 0.14 · 2 independent evidence families

COVID-19Preliminary

0.20

agreement 0.04–0.35

Literature67%Clinical33%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families

NeoplasmsPreliminary

0.15

agreement 0.00–0.42

Literature100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.12 · 1 independent evidence family · no direct causal or clinical evidence

The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.

Show all associations

Osteoarthritis0.16

Joint Diseases0.16

Melanoma0.14

COVID-190.13

Neoplasms0.12

Atrial Fibrillation0.12

Hydrops fetalis0.12

Drug development

3 compounds recorded · 3 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines.

View all recorded compounds (3)

BELAPECTINPhase 2

OLITIGALTINPhase 2

DAVANATPhase 2

Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.

Tractability

Small molecules — Strong

Advanced Clinical and Structure with Ligand support this modality.

Antibodies — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (uniprot loc high conf and go cc high conf) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Protein degraders — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (database ubiquitination and half-life data) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Other modalities — Strong

Advanced Clinical support this modality.

View underlying tractability evidence (9)

SM · Advanced ClinicalSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule BinderOC · Advanced Clinical

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

an immediate reaction to beta-lactam antibioticsClinPGx

Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.