An Informatic Approach to Chimeric Antigen Receptor Discovery Integrates Proteomics and Transcriptomics to Identify Novel Combinatorial Pairs

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy targeting CD19 yielded remarkable outcomes in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To identify potential CAR targets in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), we probed the AML surfaceome for over-expressed molecules with potentially tolerable systemic expression. We integrated large transcriptomics and proteomics data sets from malignant and normal tissues, and developed an algorithm to identify potential targets expressed in leukemia stem cells, but not in normal CD34+CD38– hematopoietic cells, T cells or vital tissues. As these investigations did not uncover candidate targets with a profile as favorable as CD19, we developed a generalizable combinatorial targeting strategy fulfilling stringent efficacy and safety criteria. Our findings indicate that several target pairings hold great promise for CAR therapy of AML.