Gadd45a transcriptional induction elicited by the Aurora kinase inhibitor MK-0457 in Bcr-Abl-expressing cells is driven by Oct-1 transcription factor.

The advantage of Aurora kinase (AK) inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) therapy mostly arises from "off-target" effects on tyrosine kinase (TK) activity of wild type (wt) or mutated Bcr-Abl proteins which drive the disease resistance to imatinib (IM). We proved that the AK inhibitor MK-0457 induces the growth arrest DNA damage-inducible (Gadd) 45a through recruitment of octamer-binding (Oct)-1 transcription factor at a critical promoter region for gene transcription and covalent modifications of histone H3 (lysine 14 acetylation, lysine 9 de-methylation). Such epigenetic chromatin modifications may depict a general mechanism promoting the re-activation of tumor suppressor genes silenced by Bcr-Abl.