Survivin
| Survivin, baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 5 (BIRC5), is a protein that inhibits apoptosis (programmed cell death) and is highly expressed in many cancers.
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Survivin in Chordoma
In light of high survivin expression in numerous tumor types and the correlation of high expression with poor prognosis, researchers have begun to explore survivin’s role in chordoma. Though study numbers are still low, high survivin expression has been detected in many chordoma samples and studies continue to evaluate its prognostic significance. This page contains a summary of published research evaluating survivin inhibition as a potential treatment for chordoma.
Molecular Evidence
Gene Expression
Surviving expression was higher in recurrent chordomas compared to primary chordoma cases. A multivariate Cox proportional-hazards model suggested that survivin expression level was an independent prognostic factor for tumor progression. Survivin expression level was also an independent prognostic factor for death.2
Protein Expression
Chen et al. (2013) found that 21 of 30 chordoma samples were positive for survivin and, survivin expression was significantly associated with recurrence.3 A more recent study by Froehlich et al. (2015) found surviving expression in 22 of 34 primary samples and 16 of 16 recurrent samples.4
Preclinical Evidence
In-vitro Efficacy
- siRNA knockdown: Knockdown led to significant changes in the cell cycle distrbituions of chordoma cell lines MUG-Chor1 and U-CH1.4
- YM155: Treatment of chordoma cell lines MUG-Chor1 and U-CH1 with survivin suppressant YM155 inhibited cellular proliferation, decreased survivin mRNA and protein expression, and increased celluar apoptosis.4