How can a traffic light properly work if it is always green? The paradox of CK2 signaling

Abstract

CK2 is a constitutively active protein kinase that assuring a constant level of phosphorylation to its numerous substrates supports many of the most important biological functions. Nevertheless, its activity has to be controlled and adjusted in order to cope with the varying needs of a cell, and several examples of a fine-tune regulation of its activity have been described. More importantly, aberrant regulation of this enzyme may have pathological consequences, e.g. in cancer, chronic inflammation, neurodegeneration, and viral infection. Our review aims at summarizing our current knowledge about CK2 regulation. In the first part, we have considered the most important stimuli shown to affect protein kinase CK2 activity/expression. In the second part, we focus on the molecular mechanisms by which CK2 can be regulated, discussing controversial aspects and future perspectives.

Keywords:

• Protein phosphorylation
• kinase activity
• signal transduction
• biological stimuli

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Funding

Our work was partially supported by Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica [grant FFC#11/2019 adopted by Delegazione FFC di Fabriano Ancona con la Delegazione FFC di Umbertide Città di Castello and grant FFC#7/2020 adopted by Delegazione FFC di Boschi Sant’Anna Minerbe “Alla fine esce sempre il sole”] (to M.S.), AFM-Telethon [grant 22974] (to M.R.), [BIRD192903/19] (to S.S.), and by the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) [grant number IG 18756] (to L.A.P.).