Biotechnology companies Circio Holding and Acuitas Therapeutics have entered a technology evaluation agreement for an in vivo CAR-T cell therapy. 

As part of the agreement, Circio’s circVec circular RNA expression technology will be tested alongside Acuitas’ proprietary T-cell-targeted lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery system. The companies aim to assess whether Acuitas’ LNP technology can be deployed to deliver circVec for novel in vivo CAR-T therapy with superior durability. 

Circio has previously claimed its proprietary circVec technology can achieve up to six months expression in lymphocytes in vivo. This feature provides an extended therapeutic window that can open multiple new development opportunities for in vivo cell therapy. 

“The in vivo CAR-T field is accelerating rapidly, and two pre-clinical stage circular RNA companies with such programmes were recently acquired in major pharma transactions,” said Dr Victor Levitsky, CSO of Circio.  

“Acuitas has developed a state-of-the-art LNP delivery platform to specifically deliver Circio´s circVec constructs into T-cells. By combining the unrivalled expression durability of circVec with the delivery precision of Acuitas´ LNPs, we aim to establish a novel in vivo CAR-T concept for cancer and auto-immune diseases where an extended expression window is required.” 

“We are excited to begin working with Circio in this technology evaluation agreement, combining our expertise in lipid nanoparticle technology with their circular RNA technology,” added Dr Ying Tam, CSO of Acuitas Therapeutics.  

“Through this evaluation, we aim to explore new possibilities in next-generation therapeutics, including in vivo CAR-T approaches, and advance the development of transformative treatments for patients.”