The Ipl1/Aurora Kinase Family: Methods of Inhibition and Functional Analysis in Mammalian Cells

The Ipl1/Aurora family of protein kinases are required for accurate chromosome segregation. Because members of this family are often overexpressed in human tumors, they have recently received much attention, both from the academic community and the pharmaceutical industry. Indeed, two small molecule Aurora kinase inhibitors have recently been described. In this chapter, we describe several methods for investigating the function of the Aurora kinases, focusing on Aurora B. We describe the use of the small-molecule inhibitor ZM447439, RNA interference, and overexpression of a catalytic mutant. All of these methods have proved useful in studying Aurora B as well as validating it as a potential anticancer drug target. However, while all three methods are useful for probing the function of Aurora B, each has inherent advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, because the mechanism underlying the inhibition is different in each case, caution must be taken when interpreting the data.