Proteomic Profiling Identifies CLDN3 as a Tumor-Selective Therapeutic Target in Small Cell Lung Cancer
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains a highly lethal disease with limited targetable surface antigens beyond delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3). We sought to systematically identify and validate tumor-selective cell-surface targets in relapsed SCLC. To this end, we developed an integrated proteogenomic pipeline combining single-cell RNA sequencing, combinatorial optimization, mass spectrometry-based proteomics, and immunohistochemistry to systematically map the SCLC surfaceome of 49 tumors across 25 patients with relapsed SCLC. Using this approach we found claudin-3 (CLDN3) to be a consistently expressed and tumor-selective antigen, with broader coverage than DLL3, which is the current clinical benchmark. CLDN3 was highly expressed across various treatment states, while maintaining low expression in most nonmalignant tissues. Functional validation using a novel CLDN3-specific monoclonal antibody (ABN501) demonstrated NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro and tumor regression in vivo, as well as a favorable safety profile. These findings support clinical development of CLDN3-directed therapies and demonstrate the utility of integrated proteogenomic approaches for antigen discovery in solid tumors.