Circio Holding and Entos Pharmaceuticals U.K. Ltd. have announced the initiation of a research collaboration.

The collaboration will involve joint development and in vivo delivery testing of Circio’s optimized circular RNA expression vectors (circVec) using the Entos proprietary Fusogenix™ PLV™ nucleic acid delivery technology.

Under the collaboration, Entos will develop and validate PLV-formulations of Circio´s circVec DNA vectors and perform technical testing in vivo. Initial data from the collaboration is expected in the next three to six months. If successful, the results will create the foundation for a continued collaboration to develop and test future circVec-PLV therapeutic candidates with potential applications in genetic medicine, chronic disease, and vaccines.

“Entos has demonstrated efficient and safe delivery of synthetic non-viral DNA vectors, both in mouse models, primates and clinical trials. The unique PLV chemistry enables direct fusion with the cell membrane and bypasses the endosomal uptake pathway. This feature has been shown to enhance delivery efficiency and reduce toxicity of DNA vectors. It is therefore a logical step for Circio to enter this research collaboration with Entos to explore the potential synergy of combining our complementary expression and delivery technologies. If successful, this partnership will aim to provide a joint platform for generating future therapeutic candidates in several disease areas of high unmet medical need,” said Dr. Thomas Hansen, CTO of Circio.

“Entos is currently partnering with a number of key international genetic medicine companies for the expansion of the use of our Fusogenix PLV drug delivery system to enable the delivery of nucleic acid to target cells through direct fusion. We have selected to partner with Circio given their unique and impressive approach to circular RNA vector expression technologies for next generation nucleic acid medicine. This collaboration will seek to use Fusogenix PLV to enhance Circio’s circVec DNA vector delivery efficiency and reduce toxicity compared to LNP-formulations. This could have a considerable impact in novel applications in genetic medicine, chronic disease and vaccines,” said Jason Ding, CBO of Entos Pharmaceuticals.