Aurora A Is Essential for Early Embryonic Development and Tumor Suppression

Aurora A is a serine/threonine kinase that functions in various stages of mitosis. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that gene amplification and overexpression of Aurora A are linked to tumorigenesis, suggesting that Aurora A is an oncogene. In addition, Aurora A overexpression has been used as a negative prognostic marker, because it is associated with resistance to anti-mitotic agents commonly used for cancer therapy. To understand the physiological functions of Aurora A, we generated Aurora A knock-out mice. Aurora A null mice die early during embryonic development before the 16-cell stage. These Aurora A null embryos have defects in mitosis, particularly in spindle assembly, supporting critical functions of Aurora A during mitotic transitions. Interestingly, Aurora A heterozygosity results in a significantly increased tumor incidence in mice, suggesting that Aurora A may also act as a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor. Consistently, Aurora A heterozygous mouse embryonic fibroblasts have higher rates of aneuploidy. We further discovered that VX-680, an Aurora kinase inhibitor currently in phase II clinical trials for cancer treatment, could induce aneuploidy in wild type mouse embryonic fibroblasts. We conclude that a balanced Aurora A level is critical for maintaining genomic stability and one needs to be fully aware of the potential side effects of anti-cancer therapy based on the use of Aurora A-specific inhibitors.