A Proteomic Platform to Identify Off-Target Proteins Associated with Therapeutic Modalities that Induce Protein Degradation or Gene Silencing

Abstract

Novel modalities such as Proteolysis Targeting Chimera (PROTAC) and RNA interference (RNAi) have a mechanism of action-based potential to alter the abundance of off-target proteins. The current in vitro secondary pharmacology assays, which evaluate off-target binding or activity of small molecules, do not fully assess the off-target effects of PROTAC and are not applicable to RNAi. To address this gap, we developed a proteomics-based platform to comprehensively evaluated abundance of off-target proteins. The first part of the manuscript describes the rationale and process through which the off-target proteins and cell lines were selected. The off-target proteins were selected from the entire human proteome based on genetics and pharmacology data (Deaton et al., 2018). The selection yielded 2,813 proteins, forming the nexus of a panel that we refer to as the "selected off-target proteome" (SOTP). An algorithm was then used to identify appropriate cell lines. Four human cell lines out of 932 were selected that, collectively, expressed ~ 80% of the SOTP based on transcriptome data. The second part of the manuscript describes the LC-MS/MS experimentation to quantify the intracellular and extracellular proteins of interest in the 4 selected cell lines. Among over 10,000 quantifiable proteins identified, 1,828 were part of the predefined SOTP. The SOTP was designed to be easily modified or expanded, owing rationale selection process developed and the label free LC-MS/MS approach chosen. This versatility inherent to our platform is essential to design fit-for-purpose studies that can address the dynamic questions faced in investigative toxicology.