Acetylcholinesterase is a well-known
protein because of the relevance of its enzymatic activity in the hydrolysis of
acetylcholine in nerve transmission. In addition to the catalytic action, it exerts non-catalytic functions; one is associated with apoptosis, in which
acetylcholinesterase could significantly impact the survival and aggressiveness observed in
cancer. The participation of AChE as part of the
apoptosome could explain the role in
tumors, since a lower AChE content would increase cell survival due to poor
apoptosome assembly. Likewise, the high Ach content caused by the reduction in enzymatic activity could induce cell survival mediated by the overactivation of
acetylcholine receptors (AChR) that activate anti-apoptotic pathways. On the other hand, in
tumors in which high enzymatic activity has been observed, AChE could be playing a different role in the aggressiveness of
cancer; in this review, we propose that AChE could have a pro-inflammatory role, since the high
enzyme content would cause a decrease in ACh, which has also been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, as discussed in this review. In this review, we analyze the changes that the
enzyme could display in different
tumors and consider the different levels of regulation that the
acetylcholinesterase undergoes in the control of epigenetic changes in the
mRNA expression and changes in the enzymatic activity and its molecular forms. We focused on explaining the relationship between
acetylcholinesterase expression and its activity in the biology of various
tumors. We present up-to-date knowledge regarding this fascinating
enzyme that is positioned as a remarkable target for
cancer treatment.