LAUSR

RNA splicing is a central step in the regulation of gene expression, leading to the accurate assembly of viable mRNA isoforms. Errors in the splicing process are common in cancer and lead to the production of tumor-specific mRNAs that often encode for neoantigen peptides. Such neoantigens cannot be discovered using conventional DNA-based tools; they require specialized software for alternative splicing analysis using RNA-seq data. Envisagenics has developed SpliceIOTM, a proprietary software platform for splicing-derived neoantigen discovery. SpliceIO uses RNA-seq data to uncover extracellular neoantigens encoded by transmembrane proteins or presented to immune cells through the MHC complex. Using SpliceIO, we have analyzed roughly 8,000 RNA-seq samples from 4 different cancers and 14 normal tissue types. Each dataset first undergoes an unsupervised clustering analysis using SpliceSliceTM to stratify patients into subpopulations based on similar aberrations in splicing machinery. We then leverage SpliceIO to identify splicing-derived, tumor-specific neoantigens enriched in these cohorts. SpliceIO incorporates features, such as protein localization, MHC binding affinity, epitope accessibility and cancer relevance of the gene to help select tumor specific targets with the highest therapeutic potential. Here, we summarize the discovery and validation of novel splicing-derived neoantigens identified using SpliceIO. To validate neoantigen candidates, we performed isoform expression quantification at the RNA and protein levels using PCR, RNA-FISH, western blot and mass spectrometry. Our experiments confirmed several neoantigen candidates encoded by tumor-specific RNA isoforms, that are translated and localized to the cellular membrane. Interestingly, one of the candidates is an endoplasmic reticulum protein that exhibits cassette exon skipping in approximately 24% of TNBC tumors. Fluorescence microscopy experiments demonstrate that the TNBC-specific isoform of the protein is localized to plasma membrane but not the ER, suggesting that alternative splicing can alter protein localization. Together, our results demonstrate the potential of RNA splicing analysis for the discovery of novel immunotherapeutic targets. Citation Format: Hasan Ekrem Zumrut, Kendall Anderson, Miguel Manzanares, Shaleigh Smith, Sakshi Gera, Nayab Habib, Sanjana Shah, Devon Trahan, Martin Akerman, Gayatri Arun. Computational discovery and experimental validation of splicing-derived neoantigens [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 448.