BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Breaking up Hippo to tame proliferation

Taming the Hippo pathway to treat cancer, fibrosis

April 5, 2019 2:16 AM UTC

Drug developers are creating a new class of compounds that disrupt a protein-protein interaction in the Hippo pathway that goes awry in cancers and fibrotic diseases. At least two programs are poised to enter the clinic next year, and the companies are honing their patient selection strategies.

The aim is to block the interaction between transcriptional activator YAP1 and transcription factor TEAD, which constitutes the most downstream event in the Hippo signaling pathway and drives transcription of proliferation and survival genes...