Survivin-deltaEx3: A novel biomarker for diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma

Context: The most important problem in the case of thyroid nodules is the lack of suitable criteria for detecting malignant thyroid tumors from other nodules in the early stage. Variable expressions level of survivin, an inhibitory protein in apoptotic pathway, and its splice variants in malignant carcinoma versus well-differentiated normal tissues candidate them as reliable biomarkers in cancers.
Aim: To semi-quantitative detection of survivin and its splice variant, survivin-deltaEx3, in thyroid nodules.
Setting and Design: We evaluated the expression level of mentioned biomarkers in thyroid nodules including carcinoma.
Materials and Methods: Samples were collected from 61 thyroid nodules including malignant, adenoma, non-tumoral (goiter and thyroidities) as well as non-neoplastic normal tissues. Transcriptional levels were measured using semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the results were normalized to b2microglubin (b2m) gene.
Statistical Analysis Used: Independent sample t-test was used to assess the significant variation of expression between different groups.
Result: Our data for a first time revealed that survivin-deltaEx3 is significantly up-regulated from normal to malignant thyroid carcinoma tissues (approximately ten fold).
Conclusion: High expression level of survivin and survivin-deltaEx3 in malignant papillary thyroid carcinoma suggested survivin gene expression and its splice variant, survivin-deltaEx3, can be potential new markers in diagnosis of human papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Keywords
Malignant carcinoma, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, semi quantitative polymerase chain reaction, splice variant, survivin