# Molecular and Genetic Studies of Bladder Tumorigenesis

> **NIH VA I01** · VA  MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Bladder cancer is very common, costly to manage but extremely poorly studied. The incidence of bladder
cancer is disproportionally higher in the Veterans than in the general population because the disease mainly
afflicts the aging males with a history of cigarette smoke. The risk of developing bladder cancer is even higher
in patients with spinal cord injuries – a condition very prevalent in the Veterans. There are many challenges in
the clinical management of bladder cancer including the unpredictable nature of recurrence and progression of
low-grade non-invasive tumors, the aggressiveness of muscle-invasive tumors and their tendency to
metastasize despite radical cystectomy, the high frequency of cisplatin resistance and the lack of effective
therapy for metastatic disease. Patients with this disease therefore inevitably experience tremendous amount
of pain and suffering, high medical expenses and low quality of life. Despite its prevalence, clinical challenges
and socioeconomic ramifications, bladder cancer has received a level of attention far below many less
common and deadly diseases. Until recently, relatively little research was devoted to bladder cancer and few if
any new drugs were approved by the FDA to treat advanced bladder cancer. While the whole genome, exome
and transcriptome profiling of human bladder cancer of late has injected new life into the research arena, many
of the new findings have not been translated into fundamentally changing the clinical practice. The primary
goals of this project are therefore to acquire a deep understanding the genetic and molecular events that play
principal roles in bladder cancer formation and progression and then to utilize such information to develop new
diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Toward this overall goal, a range of studies were carried out during the
last funding period that focused on isoform 2 of pyruvate kinase (PKM2), a key rate-limiting enzyme controlling
aerobic glycolysis or Warburg effect. Major findings include that (i) PKM2 is upregulated in a vast majority of
low-grade papillary and high-grade invasive bladder cancer; (ii) RNAi inhibition of PKM2 markedly reduces cell
proliferation and increases apoptosis and autophagy; (iii) shikonin binds and inhibits PKM2-mediated tumor cell
growth; (iv) shikonin and cisplatin together are much more inhibitory of bladder cancer growth in vitro and in
vivo; (v) acquired resistance to cisplatin is strongly associated with PKM2 upregulation; and (vi) constitutive
urothelium-specific knockout of PKM2 reduces the formation of low-grade papillary bladder tumors in
genetically engineered mice. These and other data demonstrate the critical importance of PKM2 in bladder
tumorigenesis and set a stage for work proposed in this renewal application. Three series of studies are
designed to broaden and deepen our understanding of the role and mechanisms of action of PKM2 in different
pathways and stages of bladder cancer and its therapeutic poten...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10082415
- **Project number:** 5I01BX002049-07
- **Recipient organization:** VA  MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** XUE-RU WU
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-10-01 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10082415

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10082415, Molecular and Genetic Studies of Bladder Tumorigenesis (5I01BX002049-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10082415. Licensed CC0.

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