※ PIM family introduction

    PIM consists of three members, PIM-1, PIM-2 and PIM-3. Sequence analysis show that PIM-1 and PIM-2 share a sequence identical of 61%, PIM-1 and PIM-3 are 77% identical. PIM kinases play an important role in cancer. PIM-1 and PIM-2 transgenic mice overexpression these genes have been observed to develop lymphomas. In addition, PIM-1 is over expressed in c-myc transgene driven prostate tumors in mice. In human, PIM-1 and PIM-2 are involved in prostate cancer development. Studies show that PIM-3 is over expressed in colorectal, pancreatic and hepatocellular carcinoma. The mechanisms that PIMs implicated in cancer have been reported that PIMs act as key regulator in several major proliferative and survival signaling pathways or influence the activity of specific cell cycle molecules and changes in gene expression (1).

Reference
1. Isaac, M., Siu, A. and Jongstra, J. (2011) The oncogenic PIM kinase family regulates drug resistance through multiple mechanisms. Drug Resist Updat, 14, 203-211. PMID: 21601509