objective: the greatest challenge in cancer gene therapy is to achieve the high specificity and efficiency in targeting of cancer cells. because the goal of cancer gene therapy is to eradicate cancer cells, many therapeutic genes could be detrimental if unintentionally expressed in normal cells. using promoter of the genes which are expressed specifically in cancer cells or have much more expre...

Survivin, an antiapoptotic protein highly expressed in cancer, regulates multiple cellular network associated with cancer cell viability and drug resistance. Inhibition of survivin expression has been pursued as a valid cancer therapeutic target. In this study, we showed that selenium, an effective chemopreventive agent for many types of cancers, down-regulated survivin expression. Selenium inh...

BACKGROUND Survivin is a structurally and functionally unique member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family. It plays an important role, not only in regulating mitosis but also in inhibiting apoptosis. The current literature contains few reports on the transcriptional regulation of survivin expression in lung cancer. METHODS In this study, we investigated the effect of hypoxia-ind...

BACKGROUND Survivin, a member of the IAP (inhibitor of apoptosis) gene family, appears to be overexpressed in common cancers but not in corresponding normal adult tissues. To investigate whether the survivin promoter controls cancer cell-specific gene expression, we determined whether the survivin gene promoter could regulate reporter gene expression in cancer cell lines and xenografts. METHO...

Survivin is selectively up-regulated in various cancers including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The underlying mechanism of survivin overexpression in cancers is needed to be further studied. In this study, we investigated the effect of EP300, a well known transcriptional coactivator, on survivin gene expression in human esophageal squamous cancer cell lines. We found that overexpr...

The preservation of tissue and organ homoeostasis depends on the regulated expression of genes controlling apoptosis (programmed cell death). In this study, we have investigated the basal transcriptional requirements of the survivin gene, an IAP (inhibitor of apoptosis) prominently up-regulated in cancer. Analysis of the 5' flanking region of the human survivin gene revealed the presence of a T...

Survivin is a master regulator of cell proliferation and cell viability and is highly expressed in most human tumors. The molecular network linked to survivin expression in tumors has not been completely elucidated. In this study, we show that latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), a multifunctional protein of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) that is found in Kaposi's sarcoma ...

We have previously shown that hedamycin, a GC-rich DNA-binding antitumor agent, downregulates survivin transcription (Wu et al. (2005) Molecular mechanism of inhibition of survivin transcription by the GC-rich sequence selective DNA-binding antitumor agent, hedamycin: evidence of survivin downregulation associated with drug sensitivity. J. Biol. Chem., 280, 9745-9751). Here, we report that trea...

Survivin is a unique member of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins that is overexpressed in numerous cancers through poorly defined mechanisms. One such mechanism may be through constitutive activation of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) signaling pathway, implicated in the development and progression of prostate cancer. Using the pre-neoplastic NRP-152 rat prostate cell line as a...