Laboratory of Gene Immunotherapy, Fundacion Ciencia para la Vida, Santiago, Chile.
Adv Cancer Res. 2011;111:1-37. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-385524-4.00001-5.
Survivin, the smallest member of the inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), plays an important role in the control of apoptosis, cell division, and cell migration/metastasis. Survivin is expressed and required for normal fetal development but is then generally no longer present in most adult tissues. However, reexpression of survivin is observed in numerous human cancers where presence of the protein is associated with enhanced proliferation, metastasis, poor prognosis, and decreased patient survival. Given the relatively selective expression in cancer cells, but not in normal tissue (tumor-associated antigen), and its importance in tumor cell biology, survivin has emerged as an attractive target for cancer treatment. Here, we discuss some aspects of survivin biology by focusing on why the protein appears to be so important for cancer cells and then discuss strategies that harness this dependence to eradicate tumors and situate survivin as a potential Achilles' heel of cancer.
Survivin，凋亡抑制蛋白（IAPs）家族中最小的成员，在细胞凋亡、细胞分裂和细胞迁移/转移的调控中发挥着重要作用。Survivin 在正常胎儿发育过程中表达并发挥作用，但在大多数成年组织中通常不再存在。然而，在许多人类癌症中观察到 survivin 的重新表达，该蛋白的存在与增强的增殖、转移、不良预后和降低的患者生存率相关。鉴于 survivin 在癌细胞中相对选择性表达，而在正常组织中不存在（肿瘤相关抗原），以及其在肿瘤细胞生物学中的重要性，survivin 已成为癌症治疗的一个有吸引力的靶点。在这里，我们通过关注为什么该蛋白对癌细胞如此重要来讨论 survivin 生物学的一些方面，然后讨论利用这种依赖性来根除肿瘤的策略，并将 survivin 定位为癌症的潜在阿喀琉斯之踵。
