• Xiao-Fei Gao, Ji-Feng Feng, Wei Wang, Zheng-Hua Xiang, Xiu-Jie Liu, Chan Zhu, Zong-Xiang Tang, Xin-Zhong Dong, and Cheng He.
• Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology of Ministry of Education and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
• Nat Commun. 2015 Jul 7; 6: 7650.

AbstractPirt is a transmembrane protein predominantly expressed in peripheral neurons. However, the physiological and pathological roles of Pirt in hollow viscus are largely unknown. Here we show that Pirt deficiency in mice causes bladder overactivity. The density of α,β-meATP-induced currents is significantly reinforced in Pirt-deficient dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Pirt and P2X3 receptor co-localize in bladder nerve fibres and heterologous Pirt expression significantly reduces P2X3-mediated currents. Pirt interacts with P2X3 through the N-terminal 14 amino-acid residues. TAT-conjugated Pirt(N14) peptide (Pirt(N14)) is sufficient to inhibit P2X3 activation in bladder DRG neurons and to alleviate bladder overactivity in Pirt(-/-) mice. Pirt expression is decreased in the bladder of cyclophosphamide (CYP)-treated mice, a commonly used model of bladder overactivity. Importantly, Pirt(N14) administration reduces the frequency of bladder voiding and restores the voided volume of CYP-treated mice. Therefore, our results demonstrate that Pirt is an endogenous regulator of P2X3 in bladder function.

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