Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate

Defects in chromosomal segregation and genome stability are two of the main hallmarks of cancer and their occurrence can often be due to aberrant expression of cell cycle regulators. Survivin is a multi-interactor protein that play fundamental dual roles as a regulator of cell division and an inhibi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Abdelkabir, Hana
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77028/
_version_ 1848800956440903680
author Abdelkabir, Hana
author_facet Abdelkabir, Hana
author_sort Abdelkabir, Hana
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Defects in chromosomal segregation and genome stability are two of the main hallmarks of cancer and their occurrence can often be due to aberrant expression of cell cycle regulators. Survivin is a multi-interactor protein that play fundamental dual roles as a regulator of cell division and an inhibitor of apoptosis. The family of Aurora kinases (AURKs) are amongst the many interactors that associate with survivin during mitosis, which in mammals, comprises Aurora kinase A (AURKA), Aurora kinase B (AURKB) and Aurora kinase C (AURKC). Deregulation of survivin and AURKs is linked to various abnormalities in cancer cell proliferation and strongly correlated with chemoresistance. Survivin plays a substantial role in regulating proper chromosomal alignment and segregation through its cooperation with AURKB, via the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC). It can also form a complex with AURKC, that can complement AURKB mitotic function as a CPC member during mitosis. AURKA shares functional and structural similarities with AURKB/C, however, it is still unknown whether AURKA can associate with survivin. Here, we show for the first time, that AURKA binds to survivin during mitosis and regulates its function. We report that AURKA interacts directly with the BIR domain of survivin and indirectly via its C-terminus, and their interaction is at its highest during early mitosis.  We also suggest a novel function of AURKA as a regulator of AURKB expression and activity, and as a regulator of survivin localisation and function during early and late mitosis. We further show that survivin plays a major role in controlling cell fate during mitotic arrest and its mislocalisation in the absence of AURKA leads to mitotic slippage. We show that upregulating survivin levels in both normal and transformed human cells results in premature mitotic exit when AURKA is inhibited, and that AURKA activity is essential for maintaining the localisation of the checkpoint protein BubR1 at the unattached kinetochores during mitotic arrest. These finding show that elevated survivin levels in cancer provide a risk factor to inappropriate mitotic exit and genetic instability (aneuploidy), and regulating its levels may alter the approach to utilising AURKA inhibitors in cancer treatment.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:59:48Z
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-77028
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:59:48Z
publishDate 2024
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-770282025-02-28T15:19:39Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77028/ Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate Abdelkabir, Hana Defects in chromosomal segregation and genome stability are two of the main hallmarks of cancer and their occurrence can often be due to aberrant expression of cell cycle regulators. Survivin is a multi-interactor protein that play fundamental dual roles as a regulator of cell division and an inhibitor of apoptosis. The family of Aurora kinases (AURKs) are amongst the many interactors that associate with survivin during mitosis, which in mammals, comprises Aurora kinase A (AURKA), Aurora kinase B (AURKB) and Aurora kinase C (AURKC). Deregulation of survivin and AURKs is linked to various abnormalities in cancer cell proliferation and strongly correlated with chemoresistance. Survivin plays a substantial role in regulating proper chromosomal alignment and segregation through its cooperation with AURKB, via the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC). It can also form a complex with AURKC, that can complement AURKB mitotic function as a CPC member during mitosis. AURKA shares functional and structural similarities with AURKB/C, however, it is still unknown whether AURKA can associate with survivin. Here, we show for the first time, that AURKA binds to survivin during mitosis and regulates its function. We report that AURKA interacts directly with the BIR domain of survivin and indirectly via its C-terminus, and their interaction is at its highest during early mitosis.  We also suggest a novel function of AURKA as a regulator of AURKB expression and activity, and as a regulator of survivin localisation and function during early and late mitosis. We further show that survivin plays a major role in controlling cell fate during mitotic arrest and its mislocalisation in the absence of AURKA leads to mitotic slippage. We show that upregulating survivin levels in both normal and transformed human cells results in premature mitotic exit when AURKA is inhibited, and that AURKA activity is essential for maintaining the localisation of the checkpoint protein BubR1 at the unattached kinetochores during mitotic arrest. These finding show that elevated survivin levels in cancer provide a risk factor to inappropriate mitotic exit and genetic instability (aneuploidy), and regulating its levels may alter the approach to utilising AURKA inhibitors in cancer treatment. 2024-07-31 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77028/1/Abdelkabir%2C%20Hana%2C%2014283094%2C%20Corrections..pdf Abdelkabir, Hana (2024) Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. cells proteins Survivin AURKA inhibitors
spellingShingle cells
proteins
Survivin
AURKA inhibitors
Abdelkabir, Hana
Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
title Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
title_full Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
title_fullStr Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
title_full_unstemmed Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
title_short Survivin and AURKA, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
title_sort survivin and aurka, key determinants of mitotic cell fate
topic cells
proteins
Survivin
AURKA inhibitors
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/77028/