Chemical Proteomics of Residual Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells Reveals Therapeutic Vulnerabilities

Abstract

Venetoclax combined with azacitidine has improved treatment outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), yet relapse and treatment persistence remain major clinical challenges. To investigate proteomic mechanisms associated with venetoclax-azacitidine response and adaptation, we applied a multi-layer combinatorial proteome integral solubility/stability alteration analysis (CoPISA) strategy in SKM-1 AML cells. Cells were treated with venetoclax, azacitidine, their combination, or vehicle control and profiled across four orthogonal layers: short-term lysate CoPISA, short-term intact-cell CoPISA, long-term intact-cell CoPISA after 5 days of treatment, and long-term expression proteomics of surviving cells. The venetoclax-azacitidine combination induced treatment-specific protein solubility and abundance changes that were not fully reproduced by either single agent. Long-term surviving cells displayed extensive proteomic remodeling, consistent with the emergence of an adaptive drug-tolerant state, although contributions from pre-existing resilient cell populations cannot be excluded. Integration of short- and long-term solubility changes with abundance remodeling revealed distinct adaptive regimes, including retained biochemical targets, dosage-compensated targets, sensitive-state-specific targets, and remodeled adaptive targets. This framework prioritized candidate resistance-associated proteins, including NRP2, RPL18, PLP2, RPS28, and NOTCH1. NRP2 emerged as a top candidate across all proteomics layers, consistently showing increased abundance. Overall, this study shows that combining CoPISA with expression proteomics can resolve temporally distinct proteomic states of venetoclax-azacitidine response and identify candidate adaptive vulnerabilities in AML.