Protein / target
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate phospholipase C activity
Primary system
Nervous system
Strongest disease association
prune belly syndrome
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
59 approved · 12 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
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.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
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
View underlying pathways (3)Hide underlying pathways
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.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3 agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving xerostomia, Sjogren syndrome, angle-closure glaucoma, Miosis
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 1,981 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 72 total
peptic ulcer disease · cardiac arrhythmia · Hyperhidrosis
allergic rhinitis
Urinary retention
Miosis · cataract · glaucoma
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
gastrointestinal disease · Hyperhidrosis
gastrointestinal disease
pulmonary emphysema · chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · chronic bronchitis
peptic ulcer disease · overactive bladder
Tractability
Safety liabilities
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.
Show remaining trials (24)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through a drug that targets this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- 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 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.