Widespread multi-targeted therapy resistance via drug-induced secretome fucosylation

Cancer secretome is a reservoir for aberrant glycosylation. How therapies alter this post59 translational cancer hallmark and the consequences thereof remain elusive. Here we show that an elevated secretome fucosylation is a pan-cancer signature of both response and resistance to multiple targeted therapies. Large-scale pharmacogenomics revealed that fucosylation genes display widespread association with resistance to these therapies. In both cancer cell cultures and patients, targeted kinase inhibitors distinctively induced core fucosylation of secreted proteins less than 60 kDa. Label-free proteomics of N-glycomes revealed that fucosylation of the antioxidant PON1 is a critical component of the therapy66 induced secretome. Core fucosylation in the Golgi impacts PON1 stability and folding prior to secretion, promoting a more degradation-resistant PON1. Non-specific and PON1-specific secretome deglycosylation both limited the expansion of resistant clones in a tumor regression model. Our findings demonstrate that core fucosylation is a common modification indirectly induced by targeted therapies that paradoxically promotes resistance. Total RNA-sequencing was performed in drug resistance clones at 48 h after co-culture with altered secretome conditions in vitro. Two replicates were used for each sample.