Michele Bernasconi

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children. The prognosis for patients with high-grade and metastatic disease is still very poor, and survivors are burdened with long-lasting side effects. Therefore, more effective and less toxic therapies are needed. Surface proteins are ideal targets for antibody-based therapies, like bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells. Specific surface targets for RMS are scarce. Here, we performed a surfaceome profiling based on differential centrifugation enrichment of surface/membrane proteins and detection by LC-MS on six fusion-positive (FP) RMS cell lines, five fusion-negative (FN) RMS cell lines, and three RMS patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). A total of 699 proteins were detected in the three RMS groups. Ranking based on expression levels and comparison to expression in normal MRC-5 fibroblasts and myoblasts, followed by statistical analysis, highlighted known RMS targets such as FGFR4, NCAM1, and CD276/B7-H3, and revealed AGRL2, JAM3, MEGF10, GPC4, CADM2, as potential targets for immunotherapies of RMS. L1CAM expression was investigated in RMS tissues, and strong L1CAM expression was observed in more than 80% of alveolar RMS tumors, making it a practicable target for antibody-based therapies of alveolar RMS.