Engineered antibodies that stabilize drug-modified KRASG12C neoantigens enable selective and potent cross-HLA immunotherapy
Covalent inhibitors of oncoprotein KRAS have initial efficacy, but responses lack durability. Covalently modified oncoproteins are presented as MHC-restricted hapten-peptides (p*MHC) on the cancer cell surface, enabling combination of targeted therapy with immunotherapy to overcome drug resistance. Building on indirect evidence of KRAS<sup>G12C</sup>-derived p*MHCs, we use immunopeptidomics to identify and directly quantify these synthetic neoantigens. To address challenges by their low copy number, we develop AETX-R114, a T cell engaging bispecific antibody with picomolar affinity for MHC-restricted sotorasib-modified KRAS<sup>G12C</sup> peptides presented by three HLA-A3 supertype alleles. AETX-R114 dramatically increases the half-life and thereby the number of presented p*MHCs, enabling selective and potent killing of resistant cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. To broaden the therapeutic potential of creating and targeting synthetic neoantigens, we further develop AETX-R302, which recognizes divarasib-modified KRAS<sup>G12C</sup> peptides presented on alleles from the HLA-A2 and A3 supertypes. Cryo-EM structure determination reveals the molecular basis for breaking HLA supertype restriction. Collectively, our study illustrates how engineered antibodies can transform synthetic neoantigens into actionable cancer immunotherapy targets.
Authors
- Lauren Stopfer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6984-3004)
- Sarah A. Mosure
- Lorenzo Maso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3380-2902)
- Sergio A. Rodriguez‐Aponte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6271-7918)
- Epsa Rajak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6944-2618)
- Angelina Pizzo
- Shohei Koide (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5473-4358)
- Takamitsu Hattori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5502-2595)
- Rajesh Chopra
- Sean T. Toenjes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8782-3023)
- Matthew C. Southard
- Benjamin G. Neel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9589-585X)
- Christoph Rader
- Akiko Koide (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1796-7077)
- Brian Vash
- Weifeng Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2939-1212)
- Tanvir Ahmed (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6748-2441)
- Samantha Sze
- Paul Da Silva Jardine
- Diamond N. Mensah
Institutions
- Goethe-Institute United Kingdom (GB)
- Aletheia University (TW)
- NYU Langone Health (US)
- Io Therapeutics (United States) (US)
- Apple (United States) (US)
- New York University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66132-w
- Primary Topic
- Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00