Alteration in the transcriptome of lung resident fibroblast isolated from fibrotic lungs of TGFalpha mice upon genetic knockdown of  Aurora Kinase B
Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is associated with many chronic lung diseases including Systemic sclerosis (SSc), Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) which are characterized by the progressive accumulation of mesenchymal cells and formation of scar tissue. Pulmonary fibrosis is a dysregulated response to alveolar injury which causes  a progressive decline in lung function and refractory to current pharmacological therapies.  Airway and alveolar epithelial cells and mesenchymal cells contribute to pulmonary fibrosis but the cell-specific pathways and gene networks that are responsible for the pathophysiology are unknown. Our new findings have identified the abberent activation of Aurora Kinase B (AURKB) in lung resident fibroblast and myofibroblast in IPF lung biopsies and the mouse model of transforming growth factor-a (TGFa) and bleomycin induced fibrosis. In this study, we sought to determine the role of AURKB in transcriptome changes in lung resident fibroblast during pulmonary fibrosis. Our results showed that AURKB regulates the transcriptional changes that are required for the fibroblast activation processes such fibroproliferation, myofibroblast survival and extracellular matrix deposition during pulmonary fibrosis. Finally, this study demonstrates that AURKB is a critcal regulator of fibroblast activation in IPF and hence serve as a target for therapeutic intervention. Grantee: Satish K Madala Grantor: US Department of Defense funds Grant ID: W81XWH-17-1-0666 Grant Title: Therapeutic Benefit of Hsp90 Inhibition in Pulmonary Fibrosis Overall design: mRNA profiles of cultured fibrotic lung resident fibroblast isolated from TGFalpha mice on Dox for 10 days and treated with Control or AURKB-specific siRNA