Survivin

Survivin is an 16.5 kDa intracellular protein that mediates a number of anti-apoptotic and oncogenic effects. Survivin belongs to the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family. It acts in concert with the mitotic spindle apparatus to regulate cell division and localizes to the spindle microtubule organizing center (MTOC) during the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Survivin has also been shown to modulate the function of a number of terminal effector cell death proteases (caspases) leading to an inhibition of apoptosis. Survivin expression is associated with a poor prognosis in many cancers. While survivin is being studied as a potentially important target for cancer therapy, its many biological functions in both normal and cancerous cells remain to be fully elucidated. Survivin appears to function mainly as an anti-apoptotic molecule and its ability to interfere with p53 is one of its most studied molecular action. However, the presence of survivin in the nucleus; its interaction with the mitotic spindle; its secondary localization inside mitochondria; its presence in exosomes in plasma observed exosomal release; and the existence of circulating survivin-encoding mRNA; and the existence of a many alternative mRNA splice variants all paint a complex picture of the molecule’s possible actions. Although expressed during fetal development, survivin is rarely detectable in the normal tissues of adult organisms. Survivin as a Cancer Vaccine Target: Michael J Ciesielski, Jingxin Qiu3 and Robert A Fenstermaker

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Last date updated on September, 2024