Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2019; 25(15): 1797-1816
Published online Apr 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i15.1797
Central role of Yes-associated protein and WW-domain-containing transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif in pancreatic cancer development
Enrique Rozengurt, Guido Eibl
Enrique Rozengurt, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Enrique Rozengurt, Guido Eibl, CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Guido Eibl, Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Author contributions: Eibl G and Rozengurt E contributed equally to writing and revising the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts-of-interest related to this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guido Eibl, MD, Director, Professor, Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, 72-236 CHS, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States. geibl@mednet.ucla.edu
Telephone: +1-310-7949577 Fax: +1-310-2062472
Received: February 6, 2019
Peer-review started: February 6, 2019
First decision: March 5, 2019
Revised: March 20, 2019
Accepted: March 24, 2019
Article in press: March 25, 2019
Published online: April 21, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: The identification of signaling networks that underlie risk factor promoted pancreatic cancer development and progression is of paramount importance to prevent or intercept this lethal disease. Accumulating evidence suggests that several core signaling pathways downstream of oncogenic Kras, augmented by environmental conditions, e.g., obesity, converge on Yes-associated protein (YAP) and WW-domain-containing transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ), transcriptional co-activators in the Hippo pathway. Statins and metformin, widely used Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs, show great promise to intercept this disease by disrupting or inhibiting this amplifying network at multiple points converging onto YAP/TAZ.