title: The Aurora kinase inhibitors in cancer research and therapy.
abstract: Compounds that affect enzymatic function of kinases are valuable for the understanding of the complex biochemical processes in cells. Aurora kinases (AURKs) play a key role in the control of the mitosis. These kinases are frequently deregulated in different human cancers: overexpression, amplifications, translocations and deletions were reported in many cancer cell lines as well as patient tissues. These findings steered a rigorous hunt for small-molecule AURK inhibitors not only for research purposes as well as for therapeutic uses. In this review, we describe a number of AURK inhibitors and their use in cancer research and/or therapy. We hope to assist researchers and clinicians in deciding which inhibitor is most appropriate for their specific purpose. The review will also provide a broad overview of the clinical studies performed with some of these inhibitors (if such studies have been performed).
authors.affiliation: CALIPHO Group, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, CMU-1, rue Michel Servet, 1211, Geneva 4, Switzerland. j.cicenas@mapkinases.eu.|MAP Kinase Resource, Melchiorstrasse 9, 3027, Bern, Switzerland. j.cicenas@mapkinases.eu.|Proteomics Centre, Vilnius University Institute of Biochemistry, 08662, Vilnius, Lithuania. j.cicenas@mapkinases.eu.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cicenas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D064127:Aurora Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000737:chemistry; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology*; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D064127:Aurora Kinases
keywords: Aurora kinases; Cancer; Cell cycle; Protein kinases; Small-molecule inhibitors