The three mammalian Aurora kinases (A, B and C) play essential roles cell division, by regulating mitosis and the cell cycle. These are evolutionarily conserved serine/threonine protein kinases, sharing a high degree of sequence homology, but with quite different subcellular distributions and functions [4,6,10]. Aurora kinases A and B are widely expressed in dividing cells, whereas Aurora kinase C expression appears to be restricted to the testes [9,15]. Their importance in the mitotic cycle has driven the development of Aurora kinase inhibitors as therapeutic antimitotic agents for both adult and childhood malignancies.

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16. Yang J, Ikezoe T, Nishioka C, Tasaka T, Taniguchi A, Kuwayama Y, Komatsu N, Bandobashi K, Togitani K, Koeffler HP et al.. (2007) AZD1152, a novel and selective aurora B kinase inhibitor, induces growth arrest, apoptosis, and sensitization for tubulin depolymerizing agent or topoisomerase II inhibitor in human acute leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo. Blood, 110 (6): 2034-40. [PMID:17495131]