scholarly journals Hippo signaling in the kidney: the good and the bad

2016 ◽  
Vol 311 (2) ◽  
pp. F241-F248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny S. Wong ◽  
Kristin Meliambro ◽  
Justina Ray ◽  
Kirk N. Campbell

The Hippo signaling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved kinase cascade, playing multiple roles in embryonic development that controls organ size, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. At the center of this network lie the Hippo kinase target and downstream pathway effector Yes-associated protein (YAP) and its paralog TAZ. In its phosphorylated form, cytoplasmic YAP is sequestered in an inactive state. When it is dephosphorylated, YAP, a potent oncogene, is activated and relocates to the nucleus to interact with a number of transcription factors and signaling regulators that promote cell growth, differentiation, and survival. The identification of YAP activation in human cancers has made it an attractive target for chemotherapeutic drug development. Little is known to date about the function of the Hippo pathway in the kidney, but that is rapidly changing. Recent studies have shed light on the role of Hippo-YAP signaling in glomerular and lower urinary tract embryonic development, maintenance of podocyte homeostasis, the integrity of the glomerular filtration barrier, regulation of renal tubular cyst growth, renal epithelial injury in diabetes, and renal fibrogenesis. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the Hippo-YAP signaling axis in the kidney under normal and disease conditions.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Fausti ◽  
Silvia Di Agostino ◽  
Andrea Sacconi ◽  
Sabrina Strano ◽  
Giovanni Blandino

First discovered in Drosophila, the Hippo pathway regulates the size and shape of organ development. Its discovery and study have helped to address longstanding questions in developmental biology. Central to this pathway is a kinase cascade leading from the tumor suppressor Hippo (Mst1 and Mst2 in mammals) to the Yki protein (YAP and TAZ in mammals), a transcriptional coactivator of target genes involved in cell proliferation, survival, and apoptosis. A dysfunction of the Hippo pathway activity is frequently detected in human cancers. Recent studies have highlighted that the Hippo pathway may play an important role in tissue homoeostasis through the regulation of stem cells, cell differentiation, and tissue regeneration. Recently, the impact of RASSF proteins on Hippo signaling potentiating its proapoptotic activity has been addressed, thus, providing further evidence for Hippo's key role in mammalian tumorigenesis as well as other important diseases.


eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Jun Bae ◽  
Lisheng Ni ◽  
Adam Osinski ◽  
Diana R Tomchick ◽  
Chad A Brautigam ◽  
...  

The Hippo pathway controls tissue growth and homeostasis through a central MST-LATS kinase cascade. The scaffold protein SAV1 promotes the activation of this kinase cascade, but the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we discover SAV1-mediated inhibition of the PP2A complex STRIPAKSLMAP as a key mechanism of MST1/2 activation. SLMAP binding to autophosphorylated MST2 linker recruits STRIPAK and promotes PP2A-mediated dephosphorylation of MST2 at the activation loop. Our structural and biochemical studies reveal that SAV1 and MST2 heterodimerize through their SARAH domains. Two SAV1–MST2 heterodimers further dimerize through SAV1 WW domains to form a heterotetramer, in which MST2 undergoes trans-autophosphorylation. SAV1 directly binds to STRIPAK and inhibits its phosphatase activity, protecting MST2 activation-loop phosphorylation. Genetic ablation of SLMAP in human cells leads to spontaneous activation of the Hippo pathway and alleviates the need for SAV1 in Hippo signaling. Thus, SAV1 promotes Hippo activation through counteracting the STRIPAKSLMAP PP2A phosphatase complex.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Hermann ◽  
Guangming Wu ◽  
Pavel I. Nedvetsky ◽  
Viktoria C. Brücher ◽  
Charlotte Egbring ◽  
...  

AbstractThe WW-and-C2-domain-containing (WWC) protein family is involved in the regulation of cell differentiation, cell proliferation, and organ growth control. As upstream components of the Hippo signaling pathway, WWC proteins activate the Large tumor suppressor (LATS) kinase that in turn phosphorylates Yes-associated protein (YAP) and its paralog Transcriptional coactivator-with-PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) preventing their nuclear import and transcriptional activity. Inhibition of WWC expression leads to downregulation of the Hippo pathway, increased expression of YAP/TAZ target genes and enhanced organ growth. In mice, a ubiquitous Wwc1 knockout (KO) induces a mild neurological phenotype with no impact on embryogenesis or organ growth. In contrast, we could show here that ubiquitous deletion of Wwc2 in mice leads to early embryonic lethality. Wwc2 KO embryos display growth retardation, a disturbed placenta development, impaired vascularization, and finally embryonic death. A whole-transcriptome analysis of embryos lacking Wwc2 revealed a massive deregulation of gene expression with impact on cell fate determination, cell metabolism, and angiogenesis. Consequently, a perinatal, endothelial-specific Wwc2 KO in mice led to disturbed vessel formation and vascular hypersprouting in the retina. In summary, our data elucidate a novel role for Wwc2 as a key regulator in early embryonic development and sprouting angiogenesis in mice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Jun Bae ◽  
Xuelian Luo

First discovered two decades ago through genetic screens in Drosophila, the Hippo pathway has been shown to be conserved in metazoans and controls organ size and tissue homeostasis through regulating the balance between cell proliferation and apoptosis. Dysregulation of the Hippo pathway leads to aberrant tissue growth and tumorigenesis. Extensive studies in Drosophila and mammals have identified the core components of Hippo signaling, which form a central kinase cascade to ultimately control gene expression. Here, we review recent structural, biochemical, and cellular studies that have revealed intricate phosphorylation-dependent mechanisms in regulating the formation and activation of the core kinase complex in the Hippo pathway. These studies have established the dimerization-mediated activation of the Hippo kinase (mammalian Ste20-like 1 and 2 (MST1/2) in mammals), the dynamic scaffolding and allosteric roles of adaptor proteins in downstream kinase activation, and the importance of multisite linker autophosphorylation by Hippo and MST1/2 in fine-tuning the signaling strength and robustness of the Hippo pathway. We highlight the gaps in our knowledge in this field that will require further mechanistic studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 13431
Author(s):  
Giacomo Casati ◽  
Laura Giunti ◽  
Anna Lisa Iorio ◽  
Arianna Marturano ◽  
Luisa Galli ◽  
...  

Glioblastoma (GBM) represents the most common and malignant tumor of the Central Nervous System (CNS), affecting both children and adults. GBM is one of the deadliest tumor types and it shows a strong multidrug resistance (MDR) and an immunosuppressive microenvironment which remain a great challenge to therapy. Due to the high recurrence of GBM after treatment, the understanding of the chemoresistance phenomenon and how to stimulate the antitumor immune response in this pathology is crucial. The deregulation of the Hippo pathway is involved in tumor genesis, chemoresistance and immunosuppressive nature of GBM. This pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway with a kinase cascade core, which controls the translocation of YAP (Yes-Associated Protein)/TAZ (Transcriptional Co-activator with PDZ-binding Motif) into the nucleus, leading to regulation of organ size and growth. With this review, we want to highlight how chemoresistance and tumor immunosuppression work in GBM and how the Hippo pathway has a key role in them. We linger on the role of the Hippo pathway evaluating the effect of its de-regulation among different human cancers. Moreover, we consider how different pathways are cross-linked with the Hippo signaling in GBM genesis and the hypothetical mechanisms responsible for the Hippo pathway activation in GBM. Furthermore, we describe various drugs targeting the Hippo pathway. In conclusion, all the evidence described largely support a strong involvement of the Hippo pathway in gliomas progression, in the activation of chemoresistance mechanisms and in the development of an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Therefore, this pathway is a promising target for the treatment of high grade gliomas and in particular of GBM.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Jun Bae ◽  
Lisheng Ni ◽  
Xuelian Luo

The MST-LATS kinase cascade is central to the Hippo pathway that controls tissue homeostasis, development, and organ size. The PP2A complex STRIPAKSLMAP blocks MST1/2 activation. The GCKIII family kinases associate with STRIPAK, but the functions of these phosphatase-associated kinases remain elusive. We previously showed that the scaffolding protein SAV1 promotes Hippo signaling by counteracting STRIPAK (Bae et al., 2017). Here, we show that the GCKIII kinase STK25 promotes STRIPAK-mediated inhibition of MST2 in human cells. Depletion of STK25 enhances MST2 activation without affecting the integrity of STRIPAKSLMAP. STK25 directly phosphorylates SAV1 and diminishes the ability of SAV1 to inhibit STRIPAK. Thus, STK25 as the kinase component of STRIPAK can inhibit the function of the STRIPAK inhibitor SAV1. This mutual antagonism between STRIPAK and SAV1 controls the initiation of Hippo signaling.


eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua Deng ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Jianzhong Yu ◽  
Yonggang Zheng ◽  
Yun Qing ◽  
...  

The Hippo pathway controls tissue growth through a core kinase cascade that impinges on the transcription of growth-regulatory genes. Understanding how this pathway is regulated in development remains a major challenge. Recent studies suggested that Hippo signaling can be modulated by cytoskeletal tension through a Rok-myosin II pathway. How cytoskeletal tension is regulated or its relationship to the other known upstream regulators of the Hippo pathway remains poorly defined. In this study, we identify spectrin, a contractile protein at the cytoskeleton-membrane interface, as an upstream regulator of the Hippo signaling pathway. We show that, in contrast to canonical upstream regulators such as Crumbs, Kibra, Expanded, and Merlin, spectrin regulates Hippo signaling in a distinct way by modulating cortical actomyosin activity through non-muscle myosin II. These results uncover an essential mediator of Hippo signaling by cytoskeleton tension, providing a new entry point to dissecting how mechanical signals regulate Hippo signaling in living tissues.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 742-750
Author(s):  
Yuchen Liu ◽  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
Yingzi Yang

Primary liver cancer is one of the most common cancer worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in particular, is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. The Hippo signaling pathway has emerged as a major oncosuppressive pathway that plays critical roles inhibiting hepatocyte proliferation, survival, and HCC formation. A key component of the Hippo pathway is the inhibition of yes-associated protein (YAP)/transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) transcription factors by the Hippo kinase cascade. Aberrant activation of YAP or TAZ has been found in several human cancers including HCC. It is also well established that YAP/TAZ activation in hepatocytes causes HCC in mouse models, indicating that YAP/TAZ are potential therapeutic targets for human liver cancer. In this review, we summarize the recent findings regarding the multifarious roles of Hippo/YAP/TAZ in HCC development, and focus on their cell autonomous roles in controlling hepatocyte proliferation, differentiation, survival and metabolism as well as their non-cell autonomous in shaping the tumor microenvironment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Jie ◽  
Wang Fan ◽  
Dai Weiqi ◽  
Zhou Yingqun ◽  
Xu Ling ◽  
...  

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer mortality. Despite continuing development of new therapies, prognosis for patients with HCC remains extremely poor. In recent years, control of organ size becomes a hot topic in HCC development. The Hippo signaling pathway has been delineated and shown to be critical in controlling organ size in both Drosophila and mammals. The Hippo kinase cascade, a singling pathway that antagonizes the transcriptional coactivator Yes-associated protein (YAP), plays an important role in animal organ size control by regulating cell proliferation and apoptosis rates. During HCC development, this pathway is likely inactivated in tumor initiated cells that escape suppressive constrain exerted by the surrounding normal tissue, thus allowing clonal expansion and tumor development. We have reviewed evolutionary changes in YAP as well as other components of the Hippo pathway and described the relationships between YAP genes and HCC. We also discuss regulation of transcription factors that are up- and downstream of YAP in liver cancer development.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Kelly Coffey

Identifying novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of prostate cancer (PC) remains a key area of research. With the emergence of resistance to androgen receptor (AR)-targeting therapies, other signalling pathways which crosstalk with AR signalling are important. Over recent years, evidence has accumulated for targeting the Hippo signalling pathway. Discovered in Drosophila melanogasta, the Hippo pathway plays a role in the regulation of organ size, proliferation, migration and invasion. In response to a variety of stimuli, including cell–cell contact, nutrients and stress, a kinase cascade is activated, which includes STK4/3 and LATS1/2 to inhibit the effector proteins YAP and its paralogue TAZ. Transcription by their partner transcription factors is inhibited by modulation of YAP/TAZ cellular localisation and protein turnover. Trnascriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) transcription factors are their classical transcriptional partner but other transcription factors, including the AR, have been shown to be modulated by YAP/TAZ. In PC, this pathway can be dysregulated by a number of mechanisms, making it attractive for therapeutic intervention. This review looks at each component of the pathway with a focus on findings from the last year and discusses what knowledge can be applied to the field of PC.


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