# CDC7

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/cdc7/  
OnCo record `cdc7` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

CDC7 is the kinase that switches on the starting points of DNA copying in each cell cycle. Cancer cells starved of it attempt to copy their DNA anyway and die, while normal cells pause; a CDC7 inhibitor is in trials for acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.

## Summary

CDC7 (chromosome 1p22.1) is a kinase involved in the initiation of DNA replication: it phosphorylates substrates such as the MCM proteins and claspin that control the G1/S transition (UniProt O00311). In a 2004 Cancer Research study, lowering CDC7 in a range of tumour cell lines caused an abortive S phase and cell death, whereas normal fibroblasts were protected by a p53-dependent checkpoint that stopped them entering a lethal S phase; the authors proposed this checkpoint is defective in cancer cells (Montagnoli et al., doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-04-1547). In OnCo, SGR-2921 is a CDC7 inhibitor in a phase 1 trial in acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Also known as: cell division cycle 7; CDC7 kinase; DDK
- Tags: pipeline-gap-target
- Symbol: CDC7
- Class: kinase
- Biology: Kinase that phosphorylates MCM proteins and claspin, substrates that regulate the G1/S transition and the start of DNA replication (UniProt O00311).
- Where found: Acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes (SGR-2921 trial); Tumour cell lines in preclinical work (doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-04-1547)

## Notes

- Prevalence not recorded: HGNC, UniProt and the paper cited give no positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:1745: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:1745
- UniProt O00311: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O00311/entry
- NCBI Gene 8317: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/8317
- Cdc7 inhibition reveals a p53-dependent replication checkpoint that is defective in cancer cells (Cancer Res 2004): https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-04-1547

## Connected records

- cancers: [Acute myeloid leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/aml/), [Myelodysplastic syndromes / neoplasms (MDS)](https://onco.cc/cancers/mds/)
- drugs: [SGR-2921](https://onco.cc/drugs/sgr-2921/)

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