Abstract A035: Profiling of circulating autoreactive antibodies in some 1200 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and progressive precursor lesions
Authors: Boekhoff Henning , Hendricks Laura , Cairo Elena , Bauer Andrea , Hambardzumyan Mari , Büchler Markus W. , Calderazzo Silvia , Weru Vivienn , Kopp-Schneider Anette , Brenner Hermann , Hackert Thilo , Strobel Oliver , Waterboer Tim , Giese Nathalia , Hoheisel Joerg D. 
Published: November 2022

Tumor-associated autoreactive antibodies could represent a moderately sensitive but highly specific type of biomarker. While autoantibodies in the blood of patients with pancreatic cancer have been reported, the consensus among studies is low and data validation is lacking. We profiled the abundance of circulating autoantibodies in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in a multi-step approach. For this purpose, microarrays with in situ expressed proteins were produced that contained 3060 non-mutated human proteins; one emphasis was on cell surface proteins. The microarrays were utilized for autoantibody screening of sera collected from patients of PDAC stages I, IIA, IIB/III and IV. In addition, samples were studied that represented the different grades of the precursor lesion intraductal pupillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) – low-grade, high-grade dysplasia and IPMN with associated carcinoma. Third, sera from patients diseased with the PDAC risk factor chronic pancreatitis (CP) as well as healthy donors served as control groups. The analysis revealed a significant increase in the overall proportion of immunoreactive proteins in late grades of IPMN and stages of PDAC; within each group, some sera displayed higher reactivity than others. The screening phase led to the identification of about 100 proteins, which showed a relatively high immunoreactivity associated with PDAC in comparison to an age- and sex-matched healthy control group. The characteristics of PDAC-associated autoantibodies were confirmed for the 100 proteins by analyzing sera from a total of 1200 PDAC, IPMN and CP patients as well as healthy donors. The patient groups were age- and sex-matched among each other. This confirmation phase validated the PDAC-related immunoreactivity of 17 proteins, showing high specificity of samples from PDAC patients in comparison to the healthy control group but low sensitivity of less than 10%. The clinically defined PDAC stages displayed different autoantibody profiles. However, no stage-related autoantibodies could be identified. Further, these PDAC-related antigens were also immunoreactive in smaller proportions of CP and IPMN patients, demonstrating the biological relation between PDAC and its precursors CP and IPMN. The majority of the other antigens showed a high immunoreactivity without correlation of autoantibody abundance and PDAC diagnosis, highlighting the importance of validation in large cohorts. The presence of autoantibodies specific for the 17 identified PDAC-related proteins is currently technically cross-validated by Luminex multiplex serology. In conclusion, the study has identified novel PDAC-related autoantibodies towards non-modified human proteins. While the specificity of some detected autoantibodies was high, the low sensitivity and the immunoreactivity of related precursor lesions make the definition of a broad applicable biomarker panel unlikely or too complex. However, the antigens that are specific for PDAC indicate target molecules, which could offer new therapeutic options in a personalized approach.

Citation Format: Henning Boekhoff, Laura Hendricks, Elena Cairo, Andrea Bauer, Mari Hambardzumyan, Markus W. Büchler, Silvia Calderazzo, Vivienn Weru, Anette Kopp-Schneider, Hermann Brenner, Thilo Hackert, Oliver Strobel, Tim Waterboer, Nathalia Giese, Joerg D. Hoheisel. Profiling of circulating autoreactive antibodies in some 1200 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and progressive precursor lesions [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer; 2022 Sep 13-16; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(22 Suppl):Abstract nr A035.