Abstract
NIMA-related kinase 7 (NEK7) is a serine/threonine kinase, which is the smallest one in mammalian NEK family. At present, many studies have reported that NEK7 has a physiological role in regulating the cell cycle and promoting the mitotic process of cells. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have proposed that NEK7 is involved in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Under normal conditions, NEK7 is in a low activity state, while under pathological conditions, NEK7 is abnormally expressed and therefore plays a key role in the progression of multiple tumors and chronic inflammatory diseases. This review will concentrate on the mechanism of NEK7 participates in the process of mitosis and regulates the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome, the aberrant expression of NEK7 in a variety of tumors and chronic inflammatory diseases, and some potential inhibitors, which may provide some new ideas for the treatment of diverse tumors and chronic inflammatory diseases associated with NEK7.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, (82074090, 81603362), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (1808085MH298), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (2020M682051), and Anhui Province Postdoctoral Research Funding Program Project (No. 2021A480).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Jin Wang contributed to the conception and design of the review. Simeng Chen and Min Liu performed the literature search. Min Zhang critically revised the content of the drafted work. Xiaoyi Jia was responsible for final approval of the version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Wang, J., Chen, S., Liu, M. et al. NEK7: a new target for the treatment of multiple tumors and chronic inflammatory diseases. Inflammopharmacol 30, 1179–1187 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-022-01026-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-022-01026-7