Review Article Page 1 of 12 Roscovitine in cancer and other diseases Jonas Cicenas1,2,3, Karthik Kalyan2,4, Aleksandras Sorokinas2, Edvinas Stankunas2,5, Josh Levy2,6, Ingrida Meskinyte7, Vaidotas Stankevicius2,8,9, Algirdas Kaupinis3, Mindaugas Valius3 1CALIPHO Group, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Geneva, Switzerland; 2MAP Kinase Resource, Bern, Switzerland; 3Proteomics Centre, Vilnius University Institute of Biochemistry, Vilnius, Lithuania; 4Systems Biomedicine Division and Department of Virology and Immunology, Haffkine Institute for Training Research and Testing, Mumbai, India; 5Department of Biochemistry, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania; 6RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; 7Lithuanian Centre of Non-Formal Youth Education Vilnius, Lithuania; 8National Cancer Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania; 9Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania Correspondence to: Jonas Cicenas. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, CALIPHO Group, CMU-1, rue Michel Servet’ CH-1211, Geneva 4, Switzerland. Email:
[email protected]. Abstract: Roscovitine [CY-202, (R)-Roscovitine, Seliciclib] is a small molecule that inhibits cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) through direct competition at the ATP-binding site. It is a broad-range purine inhibitor, which inhibits CDK1, CDK2, CDK5 and CDK7, but is a poor inhibitor for CDK4 and CDK6. Roscovitine is widely used as a biological tool in cell cycle, cancer, apoptosis and neurobiology studies. Moreover, it is currently evaluated as a potential drug to treat cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, viral infections, polycystic kidney disease and glomerulonephritis. This review focuses on the use of roscovitine in the disease model as well as clinical model research. Keywords: Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK); small molecule inhibitor; roscovitine; cancer; neurodegeneration; kidney diseases Submitted Dec 16, 2014. Accepted for publication Mar 16, 2015.