Loss of Hippo signaling in Drosophila leads to tissue overgrowth as a result of increased cell proliferation and decreased cell death. YAP (a homolog of Drosophila Yorkie and target of the Hippo pathway) was recently implicated in control of organ size, epithelial tissue development, and tumorigenesis in mammals. However, the role of the mammalian Hippo pathway in such regulation has remained unclear. We now show that mice with liver-specific ablation of WW45 (a homolog of Drosophila Salvador and adaptor for the Hippo kinase) manifest increased liver size and expansion of hepatic progenitor cells (oval cells) and eventually develop hepatomas. Moreover, ablation of WW45 increased the abundance of YAP and induced its localization to the nucleus in oval cells, likely accounting for their increased proliferative capacity, but not in hepatocytes. Liver tumors that developed in mice heterozygous for WW45 deletion or with liver-specific WW45 ablation showed a mixed pathology combining characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma and seemed to originate from oval cells. Together, our results suggest that the mammalian Hippo-Salvador pathway restricts the proliferation of hepatic oval cells and thereby controls liver size and prevents the development of oval cellderived tumors.T he mammalian Hippo signaling pathway has been implicated in regulation of contact inhibition, organ size, and tumorigenesis (1-4). Such regulation is thought to be mediated by control of the expression level or localization of YAP, a major target of the Hippo pathway. YAP is overexpressed in certain mammalian cancers, and YAP transgenic mice show increased liver size and intestinal dysplasia and eventually develop liver tumors. The role of YAP in control of organ size and tumorigenesis prompted us to examine whether upstream components of the Hippo pathway indeed function to regulate YAP in this context. However, embryonic mortality (WW45 −/− , LATS2 −/− , MST1 −/− MST2 −/− , or YAP −/− ) or the absence of any overt enlargement of specific organs (LATS1 −/− ) in mice lacking such components has hampered this investigation (5-9). The generation of conditional knockout mice would thus seem to be warranted for investigation of the role of the mammalian Hippo pathway in the control of liver size and tumorigenesis.Primary liver tumors have been categorized into two major types: hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CC), which originate from hepatocytes and cholangiocytes, respectively. However, some primary hepatomas exhibit an intermediate or combined (HCC/CC) phenotype and are thought to be derived from transformed progenitor (oval) cells or by dedifferentiation of mature cells (10-16). Oval cells are thought to be bipotential progenitor cells that can differentiate into either hepatocytes or ductal cholangiocytes but do so only if proliferation of hepatocytes is inhibited (17-19). However, the precise mechanism responsible for regulation of oval cell proliferation and how its deregulation contributes to tumor ...
YAP (yes-associated protein) and TAZ are oncogenic transcriptional co-activators downstream of the Hippo tumor-suppressor pathway. However, whether YAP and/or TAZ (YAP/TAZ) engage in transcriptional co-repression remains relatively unexplored. Here, we directly demonstrated that YAP/TAZ represses numerous target genes, including tumor-suppressor genes such as DDIT4 (DNA-damage-inducible transcript 4) and Trail (TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand). Mechanistically, the repressor function of YAP/TAZ requires TEAD (TEA domain) transcription factors. A YAP/TAZ-TEAD complex recruits the NuRD complex to deacetylate histones and alters nucleosome occupancy at target genes. Functionally, repression of DDIT4 and Trail by YAP/TAZ is required for mTORC1 (mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1) activation and cell survival, respectively. Our demonstration of the transcriptional co-repressor activity of YAP/TAZ opens a new avenue for understanding the Hippo signaling pathway.
ARDS = acute respiratory distress syndrome; ND = not detected; SARS-CoV-2 = severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2. * Transferred from the other hospital.
The extracellular domain of M2 (M2e), a small ion channel membrane protein, is well conserved among different human influenza A virus strains. To improve the protective efficacy of M2e vaccines, we genetically engineered a tandem repeat of M2e epitope sequences (M2e5x) of human, swine, and avian origin influenza A viruses, which was expressed in a membrane-anchored form and incorporated in virus-like particles (VLPs). The M2e5x protein with the transmembrane domain of hemagglutinin (HA) was effectively incorporated into VLPs at a several 100-fold higher level than that on influenza virions. Intramuscular immunization with M2e5x VLP vaccines was highly effective in inducing M2e-specific antibodies reactive to different influenza viruses, mucosal and systemic immune responses, and cross-protection regardless of influenza virus subtypes in the absence of adjuvant. Importantly, immune sera were found to be sufficient for conferring protection in naive mice, which was long-lived and cross-protective. Thus, molecular designing and presenting M2e immunogens on VLPs provide a promising platform for developing universal influenza vaccines without using adjuvants.
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