BIRC5 and pulmonary hypertension: In fact, it has been shown that abrogation of survivin by targeting its transcription with a histone deacetylase inhibitor or directly using a small synthetic inhibitor of survivin was sufficient to promote the apoptosis of arterial smooth muscle cells and to reverse pulmonary hypertension, in both in vitro and in vivo models of high blood flow-induced PAH and chronic hypoxia (Fan et al., 2015; Lao et al., 2016).