Interestingly, in a study evaluating the role of galectin-3 in leishmaniasis, galectin-3 recognized lipophosphoglycan (LPG) of L. major but not L. donovani and this species-specific recognition of the polygalactose epitope of L. major LPG resulted in cleavage of galectin-3 to a truncated form that is incapable of oligomerization, a prerequisite for the immunomodulatory activities of galectin-3 [29]. Here, LGALS3 is linked to leishmaniasis.