Aurora kinases function in cell cycle and cancer treatment

The Cell cycle of eukaryotes is an ordered set of events, culminating in cell growth and division into two daughter cells. Cell cycle consists of G1, S, G2 and M phases. M phase is divided to five sub-phases of prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. At the end, two daughter cells are separated by cytokinesis. Cell cycle has checkpoints that ensure passage through different steps. Mutation or over- expression into genes coding checkpoint proteins can cause cancer. Regulation of mitosis process is controlled by post translation in some protein kinases. CyclinB/Cdk1 initiates and makes progress mitosis. Some kinases, like Aurora kinases, NIMA and PLK, have vital role in mitosis. Aurora kinases have important roles in cell cycle, such as mitotic spindle assembly and metaphase chromosome bi-orientation. Aberrant expression of Aurora kinases can disrupt checkpoints and cause genomic instability to promote tumor initiation. Aurora kinase come in focus when they known as “Bona fida oncogens”. Human genome has three Aurora kinases, including Aurora kinases A, B, and C. Proteins with selective functions in cell cycle, especially cell cycle dependent kinases, are known as new drug targets for cancer treatment. Several studies have shown association of aurora kinases and malignancy; so, they have been considered as a target for developing new drugs in the treatment of cancer. Increasing our knowledge about function and regulation of these magic kinases can lead us to develop drugs for cancer treatment