Next-generation sequencing of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements for clonality assessment: a technical feasibility study by EuroClonality-NGS

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of B lymphoid malignancies is a B cell clone characterized by a unique footprint of clonal immunoglobulin (IG) gene rearrangements that serves as a diagnostic marker for clonality assessment. The EuroClonality/BIOMED-2 assay is currently the gold standard for analyzing IG heavy chain (IGH) and κ light chain (IGK) gene rearrangements of suspected B cell lymphomas. Here, the EuroClonality-NGS Working Group presents a multicentre technical feasibility study of a novel approach involving next-generation sequencing (NGS) of IGH and IGK loci rearrangements that is highly suitable for detecting IG gene rearrangements in frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens. By employing gene-specific primers for IGH and IGK amplifying smaller amplicon sizes in combination with deep sequencing technology, this NGS-based IG clonality analysis showed robust performance, even in DNA samples of suboptimal DNA integrity, and a high clinical sensitivity for the detection of clonal rearrangements. Bioinformatics analyses of the high-throughput sequencing data with ARResT/Interrogate, a platform developed within the EuroClonality-NGS Working Group, allowed accurate identification of clonotypes in both polyclonal cell populations and monoclonal lymphoproliferative disorders. This multicentre feasibility study is an important step towards implementation of NGS-based clonality assessment in clinical practice, which will eventually improve lymphoma diagnostics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2227-2240
Number of pages14
JournalLeukemia
Volume33
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Feasibility Studies
  • Gene Rearrangement/genetics
  • Genes, Immunoglobulin/genetics
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing/methods
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains/genetics
  • Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains/genetics
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell/genetics
  • Lymphoproliferative Disorders/genetics

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