ATG5 and scrapie: Because galectin-3 KO mice with scrapie infection survive longer than the scrapie-infected wild-type mice and because the levels of a lysosomal activation marker (LAMP-2) and autophagy-related proteins (i.e., Beclin-1 and Atg5) are significantly decreased in the scrapie-infected galectin-3 KO mice, it is possible that galectin-3 may play a detrimental role by damaging the integrity of lysosomes and suppressing autophagy in prion disease (Mok et al., 2007).