Identification of Activated Protein Kinase Cα (PKCα) in the Urine of Orthotopic Bladder Cancer Xenograft Model as a Potential Biomarker for the Diagnosis of Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer has a high recurrence rate; therefore, frequent and effective monitoring is essential for disease management. Cystoscopy is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis and continuous monitoring of bladder cancer. However, cystoscopy is invasive and relatively expensive. Thus, there is a need for non-invasive, relatively inexpensive urinary biomarker-based diagnoses of bladder cancer. This study aimed to investigate the presence of activated protein kinase Cα (PKCα) in urine samples and the possibility of PKCα as a urinary biomarker for bladder cancer diagnosis. Activated PKCα was found to be present at higher levels in bladder cancer tissues than in normal bladder tissues. Furthermore, high levels of activated PKCα were observed in urine samples collected from orthotopic xenograft mice carrying human bladder cancer cells compared to urine samples from normal mice. These results suggest that activated PKCα can be used as a urinary biomarker to diagnose bladder cancer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the presence of activated PKCα in the urine of orthotopic xenograft mice.