Targeting survivin in cancer: patent review

Importance of the field: Survivin is a prominent anti-apoptotic molecule expressed widely in the majority of cancers. Overexpression of survivin leads to uncontrolled cancer cell growth and drug resistance. Efficient downregulation of survivin expression and its functions can sensitise the tumour cells to various therapeutic interventions such as chemotherapeutic agents leading to cell apoptosis. Areas covered in this review: The article thoroughly analyses up-to-date information on the knowledge generated from the survivin patents. Various key areas of research in terms of understanding survivin biology and its targeting are discussed in detail. What the reader will gain: The article clearly gives an insight on the recent developments undertaken to understand the roles of survivin in cancer and in validating various treatment paradigms that suppress survivin expression in cancer cells. Take home message: Most recent developments are helpful for effectively downregulating survivin expression by using various therapeutic platforms such as chemotherapeutic drugs, immunotechnology, antisense, dominant negative survivin mutant, RNA interference and peptide-based methods. However, selective and specific targeting of survivin in cancer cells still poses a major challenge. Nanotechnology-based platforms are currently under development to enable site-specific targeting of survivin in tumour cells.