BIRC7 (baculoviral IAP repeat containing 7)

Abstract

BIRC7, also known as livin, is a member of the Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein (IAP) family and is linked to the prevention of cell death induced by apoptosis, by directly or indirectly preventing caspase activity. In general, as most IAPs, BIRC7 expression is not detectable in normal differentiated adult tissues, with the exception of placenta, spleen, lymph nodes and developing embryonic tissues. On the other hand, BIRC7 overexpression has been reported in a variety of tumor types, in which it is associated to malignancy and chemoresistance. Currently, there are some unanswered questions about BIRC7, including its interaction with caspases, a potential paradoxical role in the apoptotic process, and specific functions/affinities of the BIRC7α and BIRC7β splice variants. Moreover, several studies have demonstrated the value of BIRC7 as a therapeutic target in a number of cancer types. This review mainly focuses on the role of BIRC7 in cancer cell biology and its clinical significance, demonstrating aspects of its DNA/RNA and protein, as well as its relevance in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

Oncogenic Role of miR-217 During Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma Progression

“…For the contrast between stage I and NT, BIRC7 was the most overexpressed gene. BIRC7 has been reported to be crucial in the development of thyroid cancer by inhibiting apoptosis (49) in several cancer types, such as thyroid (50), leukemia (51), or neuroblastoma (52). In particular, for renal cell carcinoma, the overexpression of BIRC7 has been associated to PTEN-related malignancy and poorer prognosis (53) and metastatic behavior (54).…”

Assessment of Livin Expression in Childhood B-lineage Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients

“…Positive correlation between livin and good prognostic factors of childhood ALL may be explained by evidence that leukemic cells contain the cleaved form of livin and expressed Livin. In other words, this cleaved version hasn't been tested in other types of cancer (16) . Perhaps the cleaved form possessed proapoptotic properties (15) .…”

A short report on the tumor suppressor role of BIRC7 in pancreatic cancer

“…17 A series of studies reported previously that BIRC7 aberrant expression is strongly associated with invasion, progression, development, and tumorigenesis of different types of human cancer. [10][11][12][13][14][15] The most wellcharacterized role of BIRC7 in its interaction with caspases proteins and inhibit apoptosis while its zinc finger domain enhances BIRC7 antiapoptotic function. 18 Conversely, the BIRC7 expression and its biological role or function in PC are still ill investigated.…”

“…9 Generally, the expression level of most of the IAPs particularly BIRC7 was not detectable in normal tissues except the spleen, developing embryonic tissues, placenta, and lymph nodes which represent high expression. 5,10 BIRC7 over-expression has been reported in multiple cancers including thyroid carcinoma by promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition along with metastasis, breast cancer, neuroblastoma, glioblastomas, neural crest, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer, ovarian and prostate cancer. [10][11][12][13][14][15] Moreover, the high expression of BIRC7 was also detected in PC but its biological function in the initiation, progression, proliferation, and metastasis was still unclear and need further elaboration.…”