The current era of cancer research has been continuously advancing upon identifying novel aspects of tumorigenesis and the principal mechanisms behind the unleashed proliferation, invasion, drug resistance and immortality of cancer cells in hopes of exploiting these findings to achieve a more effective treatment for cancer. In pursuit of this goal, the identification of the first components of an extremely important regulatory pathway in Drosophila melanogaster that largely determines cell fate during the developmental stages, ended up in the discovery of the highly sophisticated Hippo signaling cascade. Soon after, it was revealed that deregulation of the components of this pathway either via mutations or through epigenetic alterations can be observed in a vast variety of tumors and these alterations greatly contribute to the neoplastic transformation of cells, their survival, growth and resistance to therapy. As more hidden aspects of this pathway such as its widespread entanglement with other major cellular signaling pathways are continuously being uncovered, many researchers have sought over the past decade to find ways of therapeutic interventions targeting the major components of the Hippo cascade. To date, various approaches such as the use of exogenous targeting miRNAs and different molecular inhibitors have been recruited herein, among which naturally occurring compounds have shown a great promise. On such a basis, in the present work we review the current understanding of Hippo pathway and the most recent evidence on targeting its components using natural plant-derived phytochemicals.

当前的癌症研究时代一直在不断推进，以确定肿瘤发生的新方面以及癌细胞释放增殖、侵袭、耐药性和永生背后的主要机制，希望利用这些发现来实现更有效的癌症治疗。为了实现这一目标，确定了黑腹果蝇极其重要的调控途径的第一个组成部分这在很大程度上决定了发育阶段的细胞命运，最终发现了高度复杂的 Hippo 信号级联。不久之后，人们发现通过突变或通过表观遗传改变对这一途径的成分的失调可以在多种肿瘤中观察到，这些改变极大地促进了细胞的肿瘤性转化、它们的存活、生长和对治疗的抵抗. 随着该通路的更多隐藏方面，例如其与其他主要细胞信号通路的广泛纠缠不断被发现，许多研究人员在过去十年中一直在寻找针对 Hippo 级联主要成分的治疗干预方法。迄今为止，本文采用了多种方法，例如使用外源靶向 miRNA 和不同的分子抑制剂，其中天然存在的化合物已显示出巨大的前景。在此基础上，在目前的工作中，我们回顾了目前对 Hippo 途径的理解以及使用天然植物衍生的植物化学物质靶向其成分的最新证据。