A YAP/TAZ-Regulated Transcriptional Signature Associated with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a prevalent form of cancer that develops from the epithelium of the oral cavity. OSCC is on the rise worldwide, and the death rates associated with the disease are particularly high. Despite progress in the understanding of the mutational and expression landscape associated with OSCC, advances in deciphering these alterations for the development of therapeutic strategies have been limited. Further insight into the molecular cues that contribute to OSCC is therefore required. Here we show that the transcriptional regulators YAP and TAZ, which are key effectors of the Hippo pathway, drive pro-tumorigenic signals in OSCC. Regions of pre-malignant oral tissues exhibit aberrant nuclear YAP accumulation, suggesting that dysregulated YAP activity contributes to the onset of OSCC. Supporting this premise, we found that nuclear YAP and TAZ activity drives OSCC cell proliferation, survival, and migration in vitro, and is required for OSCC tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. A...