Abstract B054: Protease activity as a biomarker and potential target among pancreatic cancer patients
Authors: Joshi Utsav , Farris Heather , De La Torre De La Torre Jorge , kim Nguyen-Ta1  , Heller Michael , Schmid-Schonbein Geert , White Rebekah 
Published: September 2024

Background: The pancreas produces digestive proteases, which are often elevated in diseased states and capable of indiscriminate cell surface receptor cleavage. High levels of digestive protease activity have been implicated in the pathophysiology of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We hypothesize that elevated digestive protease activity might downregulate or cleave immune cell receptors from the surface of cancer cells and contribute to the resistance of PDAC to immunotherapy. We have focused initially on major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-1, a ubiquitous receptor essential for antigen presentation, and CD155, an adhesion molecule over-expressed on cancer cells that regulates immune surveillance through binding to the TIGIT and CD226 receptors on leukocytes. Methods: The Rapid Assay for Protease Detection (RAPD) assay is a novel assay developed at our institution that utilizes fluorescent charge-changing peptide substrates to produce a positively charged fluorescent product fragment upon cleavage by the target protease. The RAPD assay was used to analyze protease activity levels in PDAC patients (N=50) and healthy (N=25) plasma samples. We also analyzed plasma samples obtained from an orthotopic KPC-derived mouse model for PDAC. We investigated the effects of specific proteases as well as plasma samples from PDAC and healthy subjects on MHC-1 and CD-155 receptor cleavage in cultured cells in vitro. Utilizing flow cytometry and immunofluorescent imaging, receptor loss was quantified for different proteases and plasma samples. Results: We observed elevated activity levels of digestive protease chymotrypsin as well as cathepsin-S and MMP-2 in the plasma of PDAC patients compared to healthy subjects. Similar patterns of protease activity were seen in plasma from tumor-bearing mice compared to non-tumor-bearing mice. Additionally, our results suggest loss of CD155 and MHC-1 from pancreatic cancer cells when incubated with trypsin and cathepsin-S. Incubation of cells with PDAC plasma also decreases the number of cells expressing MHC-1 and CD155 compared to control plasma, with greater differences observed in plasma with higher protease levels. Higher levels of cleaved CD155 are also detectable by ELISA in human and mouse PDAC plasma than in control plasma. Also, the protease activity (MMP2 and trypsin) correlates with plasma levels of CD155 and PD-L1. Conclusions: These studies begin to elucidate a possible role of digestive proteases in the ability of PDAC to evade the immune system. Ongoing experiments are exploring other immune receptors (including checkpoints) and whether specific protease inhibitors can block immune receptor cleavage. These experiments will inform subsequent experiments combining protease inhibitors with immunotherapy in mouse models.

Citation Format: Utsav Joshi, Heather Farris, Jorge De La Torre De La Torre, kim Nguyen-Ta1, Michael Heller, Geert Schmid-Schonbein, Rebekah White. Protease activity as a biomarker and potential target among pancreatic cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Advances in Pancreatic Cancer Research; 2024 Sep 15-18; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(17 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B054.