pVACview: an interactive visualization tool for efficient neoantigen prioritization and selection

Abstract

Neoantigen targeting therapies including personalized vaccines have shown promise in the treatment of cancers. Accurate identification/prioritization of neoantigens is highly relevant to designing clinical trials, predicting treatment response, and understanding mechanisms of resistance. With the advent of massively parallel sequencing technologies, it is now possible to predict neoantigens based on patient-specific variant information. However, numerous factors must be considered when prioritizing neoantigens for use in personalized therapies. Complexities such as alternative transcript annotations, various binding, presentation and immunogenicity prediction algorithms, and variable peptide lengths/registers all potentially impact the neoantigen selection process. While computational tools generate numerous algorithmic predictions for neoantigen characterization, results from these pipelines are difficult to navigate and require extensive knowledge of the underlying tools for accurate interpretation. Due to the intricate nature and number of salient neoantigen features, presenting all relevant information to facilitate candidate selection for downstream applications is a difficult challenge that current tools fail to address. We have created pVACview, the first interactive tool designed to aid in the prioritization and selection of neoantigen candidates for personalized neoantigen therapies. pVACview has a user-friendly and intuitive interface where users can upload, explore, select and export their neoantigen candidates. The tool allows users to visualize candidates using variant, transcript and peptide information. pVACview will allow researchers to analyze and prioritize neoantigen candidates with greater efficiency and accuracy in basic and translational settings. The application is available as part of the pVACtools pipeline at pvactools.org and as an online server at pvacview.org.