• Ting Hu, Xu Wang, Yun Xia, Lu Wu, Yuxi Ma, Rui Zhou, and Yanxia Zhao.
• Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430022, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2022 Sep 20; 135 (18): 221822312218-2231.

BackgroundAurora kinases (AURKs) family plays a vital role not only in cell division but also in tumorigenesis. However, there are still rare systematic analyses of the diverse expression patterns and prognostic value of the AURKs family in breast cancer (BC). Systematic bioinformatics analysis was conducted to explore the biological role, prognostic value, and immunologic function of AURKs family in BC.MethodsThe expression, prognostic value, and clinical functions of AURKs family in BC were evaluated with several bioinformatics web portals: ONCOMINE Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis, Kaplan-Meier plotter, cBioPortal, Metascape, GeneMANIA, and LinkedOmics; and the result was verified using human tissues.ResultsThe expression of AURKA and AURKB were upregulated in BC in subgroup analyses based on tumor stage (all P   <  0.05). BC patients with high AURKA and AURKB expression had a worse overall survival, relapse-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival (all P   <  0.05). Verification experiment revealed that AURKA and AURKB were upregulated in BC ( P  < 0.05). AURKA and AURKB were specifically associated with several tumor-associated kinases (polo-like kinase 1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 1), miRNAs (miR-507 and miR-381), and E2F transcription factor 1. Moreover, AURKA and AURKB were correlated with immune cell infiltration. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that AURKA and AURKB were involved in the cell cycle signaling pathway, platinum drug resistance signaling pathway, ErbB signaling pathway, Hippo signaling pathway, and nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptor signaling pathway.ConclusionsAurora kinases AURKA and AURKB could be employed as novel prognostic biomarkers or promising therapeutic targets for BC.Copyright © 2022 The Chinese Medical Association, produced by Wolters Kluwer, Inc. under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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