A proteomic and phosphoproteomic landscape of KRAS mutant cancers identifies combination therapies

Abstract

KRAS mutant cancer, characterized by the activation of a plethora of phosphorylation signaling pathways, remains a major challenge for cancer therapy. Despite recent advancements, a comprehensive profile of the proteome and phosphoproteome is lacking. This study provides a proteomic and phosphoproteomic landscape of 43 KRAS mutant cancer cell lines across different tissue origins. By integrating transcriptomics, proteomics, and phosphoproteomics, we identify three subsets with distinct biological, clinical, and therapeutic characteristics. The integrative analysis of phosphoproteome and drug sensitivity information facilitates the identification of a set of drug combinations with therapeutic potentials. Among them, we demonstrate that the combination of DOT1L and SHP2 inhibitors is an effective treatment specific for subset 2 of KRAS mutant cancers, corresponding to a set of TCGA clinical tumors with the poorest prognosis. Together, this study provides a resource to better understand KRAS mutant cancer heterogeneity and identify new therapeutic possibilities.

Keywords: DOT1L; KRAS mutation; SHP2; cancer; drug sensitivity; heterogeneity; phosphoproteomics; proteomics; subtype; therapy.