The objective of the present study was to explore the association between muscarinic cholinergic signaling and urothelial bladder tumors. Possible associations among overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms and bladder tumors were retrospectively investigated using a multicenter Chinese database with prospectively collected data since 2010. Firstly, it was demonstrated that OAB symptoms, such as urgency, were more severe in patients with invasive bladder cancer and were associated with a reduced prognosis. Following this, muscarinic cholinergic receptor 3 (M3R) expression in urothelium was determined to be lower in invasive cancer tissue than in adjacent non-cancerous tissue, yet M3R upregulation was associated with a reduced progression free survival (PFS) time. Additionally, it was also demonstrated that muscarinic cholinergic receptor 2 (M2R) was upregulated in the sub-urothelium, and this was also associated with a reduced PFS time. Furthermore, it was determined that cholinesterase and acetylcholinesterase were lower in invasive cancer than in non-invasive cancer. In conclusion, the results indicated that M3R expression was downregulated in invasive bladder cancer, which may have a role as a protective anti-oncogene, in contrast to its oncogenic role in numerous other cancer types. Therefore, muscarinic cholinergic signaling may be a novel therapeutic target for treating bladder cancer.
Oncology letters. 2018 May 16 [Epub]
Wei Wei, Minggang Wang, Yunglong Li, Qinggui Meng, Yong Tang, Haoyuan Lu, Wenchao Yu, Qiwei Cheng, You Li, Long Xu, Shaojun Jian, Yuexian Wu, Xianlin Yi, Keji Xie
Department of Radiology, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China., Department of Urology, Affiliated Hospital of Qinghai University, Xining, Qinghai 810016, P.R. China., Department of Urology, First People's Hospital of Kunshan, Jiangsu 215300, P.R. China., Department of Urology, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China., Hubei Engineering Laboratory for Synthetic Microbiology, Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan, Hubei 430075, P.R. China., Department of Urology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510180, P.R. China., Department of Respiratory, Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, P.R. China.