Roles of Aurora kinases in mitosis and tumorigenesis.
Aurora kinases, which have been implicated in several vital events in mitosis, represent a protein kinase family highly conserved during evolution. The activity of Aurora kinases is delicately regulated, mainly by phosphorylation and degradation. Deregulation of Aurora kinase activity can result in mitotic abnormality and genetic instability, leading to defects in centrosome function, spindle assembly, chromosome alignment, and cytokinesis. Both the expression level and the kinase activity of Aurora kinases are found to be up-regulated in many human cancers, indicating that these kinases might serve as useful targets for the development of anticancer drugs. This review focuses on recent progress on the roles of Aurora kinases in mitosis and tumorigenesis.
Fu
Jingyan
J
College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. zhangcm@pku.edu.cn.
Bian
Minglei
M
Jiang
Qing
Q
Zhang
Chuanmao
C
D000818:Animals; D064127:Aurora Kinases; D002455:Cell Division; D020090:Chromosome Segregation / Q000235:genetics; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008938:Mitosis / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000502:physiology*
D064127:Aurora Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases