Abstract 905: Targeting muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in glioma stem like cells
Authors: Anand Sumyuktha V. , Skorput Alexander G. , Gulledge Allan T. , Fox Isabella B. , Bonnin Damian A. , Young Alison L. , Havrda Matthew C. 
Published: June 2022

Primary gliomas arising within the brain remain the deadliest form of brain cancer and account for 78% of all malignant brain tumors. Glioblastoma patients have a 5 percent five-year survival rate and drug-resistant tumors often recur following surgical resection and treatment with radiation or chemotherapy. The cancer stem cell hypothesis suggests the presence of a subset of undifferentiated cells, namely glioma stem cells (GSCs), in the heterogenous tumor mass that are likely responsible for tumor initiation and recurrence of tumors post resection and give rise to drug resistant tumors. Determining a way to suppress these malignant characteristics and/or depleting the GSC population could improve current cancer treatments and the survival of glioma patients. Some GSCs are similar to oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), found during neural development and also residing in the adult brain. OPCs are prone to malignant transformation and believed to be a cellular origin for glioma. Recent findings indicate that the well-characterized neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) maintains the primitive state of normal OPCs via muscarinic ACh receptors (mAChRs) preventing maturation and cell cycle exit. We investigated the functional characterization of ACh and mAChRs in modulating malignancy in OPC-like cells. We studied cultures of primary mouse OPC-like GSCs. We used the primary cells to culture three-dimensional tumor organoids in vitro to better represent tumor heterogeneity. We also used patient derived xenografts (PDX) of glioma to grow flank xenografts in NSG mice for an in vivo model. Publicly available data and studies in our lab show high levels of expression of CHRM3 (M3mAChR) in glioma patients and in primary OPC like GSCs. A drug screen conducted in the context of multiple sclerosis determined that benztropine (BZT), an anti muscarinic drug targeting M3mAChR, causes normal OPCs to exit the cell cycle, lose stem cell like characteristics, and differentiate. In our lab, electrophysiological studies demonstrated that activation of mAChRs in OPC-like cells from mouse and patient tumors generates rapid (&lt; 1 second) increases in cytosolic calcium. Pharmacologic studies indicated that treatment with FDA approved anti muscarinic benztropine suppresses proliferation in cultured glioma cells. We also observed that serially passaging flank tumors treated with BZT into new host mice slowed down recurrence of new tumors. In order to determine key receptors mediating cholinergic responses in OPC-like cells we performed protein quantification, which displayed lowered phosphorylation of ERK. Electrophysiological studies are being conducted to dissect the mechanisms by which ACh evokes calcium release. These studies improve understanding of how cholinergic microenvironment influences stem-like glioma cells, providing a platform for repositioning available small molecule modifiers for treatment of glioma.

Citation Format: Sumyuktha V. Anand, Alexander G. Skorput, Allan T. Gulledge, Isabella B. Fox, Damian A. Bonnin, Alison L. Young, Matthew C. Havrda. Targeting muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in glioma stem like cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 905.