Quit your YAPing: A new target for cancer therapy

Abstract

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signaling module that plays multiple roles in embryonic development. Components of the pathway, which includes a kinase cascade and a downstream complex composed of YAP and TEAD transcription factors, are dysregulated in a significant fraction of human cancers. In this issue of Genes & Development, Liu-Chittenden and colleagues (pp. 1300-1305) use genetic and pharmacological means to disrupt the active YAP-TEAD complex. As this intervention impedes tumorigenesis in the liver with no apparent effect on normal liver homeostasis, the work paves the way for the development of new strategies to target this pervasive oncogenic pathway. © 2012 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.