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Expression profile of survivin in acute leukaemias: the importance of differential splicing

Leukemia volume 19, pages 1284–1286 (2005)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

The inhibitors of apoptosis are an evolutionary conserved family of proteins that regulate different phases of apoptotic pathways (reviewed in Liston et al1). Survivin is a member of this family with a particular function that combines antiapoptotic potential with a role in cell cycle regulation. As a normal partner in the chromosome passenger protein complex, defective survivin function causes mitotic abnormalities with failure of cytokinesis that result in the appearance of multinucleated cells.2, 3 Several lines of evidence support the antiapoptotic potential of survivin, although it does not seem to be essential for survival of some normal cell types. Moreover, loss of survivin was recently shown to elicit a p53-dependent checkpoint response (Yang et al,4 and references therein). In addition to the first described isoform survivin-α, two other splice variants, survivin Δ-Ex3 and survivin-2B, have been identified that are structurally distinct and differentially regulated and localised in the cell.5 Whereas survivin-α and survivin Δ-Ex3 have been shown to protect against different apoptotic stimuli, the role of survivin-2B is less clear, as it seems to have lost its antiapoptotic potential, and it has been suggested that it could function to titrate the two other isoforms. Recently, survivin-2B has been reported to be upregulated by p53 and act as a proapoptotic factor sensitising cells to apoptosis induced by doxorubicin.6

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Alberto Barros (Laboratory of Genetics, Medical School of Porto) and Professor Sérgio Castedo (Laboratory of Medical Genetics and Prenatal Diagnosis, Porto) for providing the RNA samples from the patients. This work was partially supported by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Grant SDH.I.01.20), Novartis, and Cancer Research UK. Rita Lopes is a recipient of a PhD grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Grant BD/4770/2001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Research UK Molecular Oncology Unit, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Charterhouse Square, London, UK

    R Lopes & N R Lemoine

  2. Department of Clinical Hematology, Hospital de S João, Porto, Portugal

    I Castro

  3. Cancer Biology Group, IPATIMUP (Institute for Molecular Pathology and Immunology of Porto University), Porto, Portugal

    P Pontes & C Sambade

  4. Department of Clinical Immunology, Hospital S João, Porto, Portugal

    J Candeias

  5. Department of Pathology, Medical School of Porto, Portugal

    C Sambade

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  1. R Lopes
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  2. I Castro
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  6. C Sambade
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Correspondence to C Sambade.

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Lopes, R., Castro, I., Pontes, P. et al. Expression profile of survivin in acute leukaemias: the importance of differential splicing. Leukemia 19, 1284–1286 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403765

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