GENE-IS: Time-Efficient and Accurate Analysis of Viral Integration Events in Large-Scale Gene Therapy Data.
Integration site profiling and clonality analysis of viral vector distribution in gene therapy is a key factor to monitor the fate of gene-corrected cells, assess the risk of malignant transformation, and establish vector biosafety. We developed the Genome Integration Site Analysis Pipeline (GENE-IS) for highly time-efficient and accurate detection of next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based viral vector integration sites (ISs) in gene therapy data. It is the first available tool with dual analysis mode that allows IS analysis both in data generated by PCR-based methods, such as linear amplification method PCR (LAM-PCR), and by rapidly evolving targeted sequencing (e.g., Agilent SureSelect) technologies. GENE-IS makes use of trimming strategies, customized reference genome, and soft-clipped information with sequential filtering steps to provide annotated IS with clonality information. It is a scalable, robust, precise, and reliable tool for large-scale pre-clinical and clinical data analysis that provides users complete flexibility and control over analysis with a broad range of configurable parameters. GENE-IS is available at https://github.com/G100DKFZ/gene-is.
Department of Translational Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Saira
S
Afzal
Department of Translational Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Stefan
S
Wilkening
Department of Translational Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Christof
C
von Kalle
Department of Translational Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
Manfred
M
Schmidt
Department of Translational Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: raffaele.fronza@nct-heidelberg.de.
Raffaele
R
Fronza
LAM-PCR; bioinformatical analysis; gene therapy; next-generation sequencing; targeted sequencing; viral integration sites