Survivin-2B promotes autophagy by accumulating IKK alpha in the nucleus of selenite-treated NB4 cells

Survivin-2B, a known splice variant of survivin, has been reported to promote cell death in some cancer cells, although it keeps prosurvival function in others, and the mechanisms are unclear. In this report, we discovered that selenite, an antitumor agent, switched protective autophagy to apoptosis in NB4 cells. In this process, the level of survivin-2B was decreased and the interaction between IKK alpha and survivin-2B in the nucleus was attenuated, which further led to the decrease of nuclear IKK alpha. As a result, P73, a known transcript factor of UVRAG, was downregulated. Therefore, the expression of UVRAG, one of the initiators of autophagy, was inhibited. The regulatory status of survivin-2B was also proved in NB4 cells after different chemicals' exposure and in other tumor cell lines (Jurkat, HCT116). Finally, experiments in vivo confirmed that the alterations of survivin-2B, IKK alpha, P73 and UVRAG were the same as that in vitro. Taken together, survivin-2B promoted autophagy and further regulated cell death by accumulating and stabilizing IKK alpha in the nucleus.