Pan-cancer N-glycoproteomic atlas of patient-derived xenografts uncovers FAT2 as an actionable surface target
Cell surface proteins offer significant cancer therapeutic potential attributable to their accessible membrane localization and central roles in cellular signaling, yet their promise remains largely untapped due to technical challenges inherent to profiling them. Here, we employ N-glycoproteomics to analyze 85 patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), constructing Glyco PDXplorer-an in vivo pan-cancer atlas of cancer-derived surface proteins. We develop a target discovery pipeline to prioritize proteins with favorable expression profiles for immunotherapeutic targeting and validate FAT2 as a squamous-cancer-enriched surface protein minimally detected in normal tissue. Functional studies reveal that FAT2 is essential for head and neck squamous cancer (HNSC) cell growth and adhesion through regulation of surface architecture and integrin-PI3K signaling. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells targeting FAT2 demonstrate anti-tumor activity. This work lays the foundation for developing FAT2-targeted therapies and represents a pivotal platform to inform therapeutic target discovery across cancers.
Authors
- Lusia Sepiashvili
- Sheila Kumari Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1272-5300)
- Susie Su
- Meinusha Govindarajan
- Shahbaz Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9352-0088)
- Shawn C. Chafe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8802-651X)
- Martín A. Rossotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8902-5532)
- Vladimir Ignatchenko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7457-7274)
- Shan Grewal
- Rama Khokha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6028-1524)
- Jalna Meens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5274-3744)
- Dillon McKenna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6803-9786)
- Amanda Khoo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8917-918X)
- Nhu-An Pham
- Alison E. Casey
- Nazanin Tatari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0003-6121)
- Christina Karamboulas
- Petar Miletic
- Ismael Samudio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8676-1035)
- Peter Bergqvist
- Greg Hussack (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9852-6865)
- Max Topley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1050-4360)
- Liza Cerna-Portillo
- Hye‐Yeon Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2446-9308)
- Emma Cummins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5193-7261)
- Simona Principe
- Ming-Sound Tsao
- Lucas Asselstine
- Wei Xu
- Jasmine Chin
- Patrick Chan
- Wei Shi
- Thomas Kislinger
- Vuk Stambolic
- Salvador Mejia-Guerrero
- Lydia Y. Liu
- Begonia Silva
- Abilasha Rao-Bhatia
- Fei-Fei Liu
- Maria-Jose Sandi
- Chitra Venugopal
- Laurie Ailles
- Matthew Waas
- David Goldstein
Institutions
- University Health Network (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- FPInnovations (CA)
- McMaster University Medical Centre (CA)
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (CA)
- Public Health Ontario (CA)
- National Research Council Canada (CA)
- Hamilton Health Sciences (CA)
- McMaster University (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell Reports Medicine
- Published
- 2026-01-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102578
- Primary Topic
- Protein Degradation and Inhibitors
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00