The CCN family of matricellular proteins are recognized bona fide targets for therapeutically targeting so-called chronic inflammatory diseases, including fibrosis and cancers. The majority of the work supporting this contention has been derived from examining CCN2, formerly, and unhelpfully, termed “connective tissue growth factor.” Both CCN2, and its related protein, CCN1, formerly termed “cysteine-rich protein 61”, are positively regulated by not only TGFbeta, but also by the hippo/YAP/TAZ mechanotransduction pathway that appears to drive these pathologies. Indeed, increasing evidence indicates that CCN1 also contributes to these fibrosis and cancers and, consequently, targeting both CCN2 and CCN1 simultaneously could be of therapeutic value. This commentary focuses on a recent, exciting paper (Ju et al., 2020, Scientific Reports, 10, 3201) suggesting that CCN1 is a target for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

母体细胞蛋白的CCN家族是公认的真正靶标，用于治疗性靶向所谓的慢性炎性疾病，包括纤维化和癌症。支持该论点的大部分工作来自对CCN2的检查，该检查以前是无用的，被称为“结缔组织生长因子”。CCN2及其相关蛋白CCN1（以前称为“富含半胱氨酸的蛋白61”）不仅受到TGFbeta的正调控，而且还受到似乎驱动这些病理的河马/ YAP / TAZ机械转导途径的正调控。确实，越来越多的证据表明CCN1也有助于这些纤维化和癌症，因此，同时靶向CCN2和CCN1可能具有治疗价值。本评论的重点是最近的一篇激动人心的论文（Ju等，2020年，《科学报告》，第10期，第3201页）表明CCN1是非酒精性脂肪性肝炎（NASH）的靶标。