{"doi":"10.1101/2022.09.27.509788","title":"YAP/TAZ inactivation with simvastatin attenuates glucocorticoid-induced human trabecular meshwork cell dysfunction","abstract":"Abstract Purpose Impairment of the trabecular meshwork (TM) is the principal cause of increased outflow resistance in the glaucomatous eye. Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional coactivator with PDZ binding motif (TAZ) are emerging as potential mediators of TM cell/tissue dysfunction. Furthermore, YAP/TAZ activity was recently found to be controlled by the mevalonate pathway in non-ocular cells. Clinically-used statins block the mevalonate cascade and were shown to improve TM cell pathobiology; yet, the link to YAP/TAZ signaling was not investigated. In this study, we hypothesized that YAP/TAZ inactivation with simvastatin attenuates glucocorticoid-induced human TM (HTM) cell dysfunction. Methods Primary HTM cells were seeded atop or encapsulated within bioengineered extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogels. Dexamethasone was used to induce a pathologic phenotype in HTM cells in the absence or presence of simvastatin. Changes in YAP/TAZ activity, actin cytoskeletal organization, phospho-myosin light chain levels, hydrogel contraction/stiffness, and fibronectin deposition were assessed. Results Simvastatin potently blocked pathologic YAP/TAZ nuclear localization/activity, actin stress fiber formation, and myosin light chain phosphorylation in HTM cells. Importantly, simvastatin co-treatment significantly attenuated dexamethasone-induced ECM contraction/stiffening and extracellular fibronectin deposition. Sequential treatment was similarly effective but did not match clinically-used Rho kinase inhibition. Conclusions YAP/TAZ inactivation with simvastatin attenuates HTM cell pathobiology in a tissue-mimetic ECM microenvironment. Our data may help explain the association of statin use with a reduced risk of developing glaucoma via indirect YAP/TAZ inhibition as a proposed regulatory mechanism.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2022,"id":301935,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9602,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":917229,"name":"Ayushi Singh","orcid":"0000-0002-0586-3361","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":822279,"name":"Haiyan Li","orcid":"0000-0003-1259-0549","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":562793,"name":"Ana N. Strat","orcid":"0000-0001-6499-1518","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":677830,"name":"Tyler Bagué","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":677318,"name":"Preethi S. Ganapathy","orcid":"0000-0001-5736-7485","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":333651,"name":"Samuel Herberg","orcid":"0000-0001-7196-2010","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":722357,"name":"Hannah Yoo","orcid":"0009-0004-0440-2936","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":86,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:32:06.309890Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}