Protein / target
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate phospholipase C
Strongest disease association
Prune belly syndrome
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor mediates various cellular responses, including inhibition of adenylate cyclase, breakdown of phosphoinositides and modulation of potassium channels through the action of G proteins.
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The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor mediates various cellular responses, including inhibition of adenylate cyclase, breakdown of phosphoinositides and modulation of potassium channels through the action of G proteins. Primary transducing effect is Pi turnover
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (25)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cbasal plasma membrane
- Cbasolateral plasma membrane
- Cdendrite
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cplasma membrane
- Cpostsynaptic membrane
- Csynapse
- Facetylcholine binding
- FG protein-coupled acetylcholine receptor activity
- Fphosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate phospholipase C activity
- Fsignaling receptor activity
- Pacetylcholine receptor signaling pathway
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Synaptic signalling
- ·Postsynaptic cell membrane
- ·postsynaptic membrane
- ·synapse
- ·chemical synaptic transmission
G protein-coupled signalling
- ·G protein-coupled acetylcholine receptor activity
- ·adenylate cyclase-inhibiting G protein-coupled acetylcholine receptor signaling pathway
- ·G protein-coupled acetylcholine receptor signaling pathway
- ·G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
Muscle contraction
- ·positive regulation of smooth muscle contraction
- ·regulation of smooth muscle contraction
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Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.
59 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 2 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.
Drugs targeting this protein
How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3 agonist
Indicated for Glaucoma, Glaucoma, Angle-Closure, Glaucoma, Open-Angle, Ocular Hypertension
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3 antagonist
Indicated for Urinary Bladder, Overactive, Urinary Incontinence, Urinary Incontinence, Urge
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.
Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene CHRM3
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene CHRM3that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.
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This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.
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Drug development
72 compounds recorded · 59 approved · 12 in clinical development · 1 earlier-stage
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Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.
Tractability
Small molecules — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (11)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
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ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for 2 drugs that target this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.
- New publicationA phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor, amlexanox, reduces neuroinflammation and neuronal death after pilocarpine-induced seizure.
- New publicationPhase 2 results from Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Study 0537: a phase 2/3 study comparing acupuncture-like transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation versus pilocarpine in treating early radiation-induced xerostomia.
- New publicationA phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of pilocarpine for vaginal dryness: North Central Cancer Treatment group study N04CA.
- New publicationEfficacy and safety of transdermal and oral oxybutynin in children with neurogenic detrusor overactivity.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Kentera (previously Oxybutynin Nicobrand) (EMA)
- New publicationDentate granule cell neurogenesis is increased by seizures and contributes to aberrant network reorganization in the adult rat hippocampus.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.