Abstract LB432: Identification of novel drug targets using the ADAPT biotargeting system on FFPE tissue from patients with glioblastoma multiforme
Authors: Wei Xixi , An Myunggi , Santhanam Radhika , Richardson Barbara , Vu Lucas , Saul Justin , Walton Anna , Gee Michael , Martin Daniel , Hubbard Amanda , Rodin Alexis , Rosenow Matthew , Hornung Tassilo 
Published: April 2024

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor types with a five-year survival rate of 6.9%. In 2023, more than 14,490 Americans were expected to receive a diagnosis. Although great progress has been achieved in protein target identification and treatment over the last few years, current treatment options are limited, and tumor recurrence occurs at a high rate due to treatment resistance. Aptamers, short single-stranded oligonucleotide ligands with high-affinity binding to molecular targets, are well suited tools for exploring novel targets in highly heterogeneous tumors with complex etiologies like GBM, where clinically relevant biomarkers are limited. In this study, aptamer-based cancer-specific drug target identification was performed by Adaptive Dynamic Artificial Polyligand Targeting (ADAPT) Biotargeting System. In short, a GBM-specific library was enriched through a Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) process using micro dissected Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissues from GBM patients, along with whole body normal tissue for counterselection. Microdissection of tissue allows the partitioning of different types of cells to focus on specific cells of interest. The enriched libraries have been evaluated on clinical GBM and normal brain control samples through aptamer mediated tissue staining, resulting in preferential binding of enriched libraries compared to controls in the vast majority of GBM patients with little binding to normal brain samples. The final library was subsequently applied in an in-house developed library-based affinity pull-down assay using lysates from FFPE tissue of the same group of GBM patients and normal brain samples, followed by unbiased Mass Spectrometry for protein target identification. Combining the results from this proteomics analysis and data from the internal Whole Transcriptome Sequencing (WTS) database, we were able to identify several targets that are highly expressed in GBM and other cancer lineages. Antibody staining provided further validation of the expression levels and the cellular localization. The targets identified in this study include not only potential novel therapeutic targets, but also well-studied biomarkers and targets with available drugs already in clinical trials, demonstrating the platform has great potential for identifying high affinity binding and selectivity compared to traditional proteomics and other methods in drug target discovery.

Citation Format: Xixi Wei, Myunggi An, Radhika Santhanam, Barbara Richardson, Lucas Vu, Justin Saul, Anna Walton, Michael Gee, Daniel Martin, Amanda Hubbard, Alexis Rodin, Matthew Rosenow, Tassilo Hornung. Identification of novel drug targets using the ADAPT biotargeting system on FFPE tissue from patients with glioblastoma multiforme [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 2 (Late-Breaking, Clinical Trial, and Invited Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(7_Suppl):Abstract nr LB432.