Can blocking the Hippo pathway help keep blood vessels healthy?

The Hippo pathway: A mechanism underlying the vascular protective effects of cAMP

Dr Mark Bond and his colleagues at the University of Bristol are studying how a molecule called cAMP protects blood vessel health to see if manipulating it could treat vascular disease. High levels of cAMP inside the cells that line blood vessels can be protective against disease by controlling the cells’ behaviour. An abnormal cell response to cAMP is linked to vascular disease. Dr Bond has shown that cAMP controls growth and movement of cells lining blood vessels through the Hippo signalling pathway. His team has discovered that cAMP affects the cell’s internal scaffolding, called the actin cytoskeleton, to control the growth and movement of cells and keep blood vessel walls stable. In this project, Dr Bond will test whether cAMP controls artery wall cell growth by changing the activity of key proteins in the Hippo signalling pathway. He will also identify new compounds that block these proteins, and test whether these inhibitors can stop vascular disease development. This project will help us to understand how cAMP protects blood vessels and may identify compounds that could become new drugs to treat vascular disease.