Looking downstream to survivin

The potential of the B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) family of apoptosis inhibitors as a cancer target has attracted a number of biotech companies. However, survivin, an apoptosis inhibitor overexpressed in common human cancers and further downstream in the cell death pathway than Bcl-2, may prove to be more effective in diagnosing and treating particular tumor types. Two papers published last week support the use of survivin to detect bladder cancer and treat melanoma.

Idun Pharmaceuticals Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) is working with both Bcl-2 and inhibitors of apoptosis (IAPs) that interact with caspases. The company would not disclose whether it is specifically developing therapeutics targeting survivin. But Kevin Tomaselli, vice president of discovery research, noted that "ideally, you want to target at the lesion in the apoptosis pathway" - the aberrant point in the cell death pathway responsible for the abnormal cell growth in a particular tumor cell type...