Evaluating the expression level of Survivin gene in different groups of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients of Iran

Survivin is one of the major members of Inhibitory Apoptotic Proteins (IAP) family. The functional anti-apoptotic and regulatory role of Survivin in the cell cycle had made it as an interesting candidate for tumor studies. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the most common malignancies of children that accounts for 30% of all the childhood malignancies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic importance of Survivin level in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients of Iran in four different steps of disease in order to follow up its impact on various treatment ways, the development of the disease, and the response to treatment in the patients. The expression level of Survivin was evaluated in 85 patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 85 healthy controls using Quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction. Also, western blot analysis was done to confirm the results. Based on our findings, the expression of Survivin showed a significant up-regulation in patients compared to controls. Therefore, a correlation between Survivin expression and the development pattern of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a strong diagnostic efficiency (AUC-ROC, 0.8562) was observed. Therefore, it can be introduced as a potential marker for prognosis B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in the future.