Engineering extracellular vesicles (exosomes) for nucleic acid delivery: exoASO‑STAT6^® exosomes as a case study

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, can transport a range of different molecular cargo to target cells, making them a promising therapeutic modality. EVs can be engineered to load molecules on their surface or inside the lumen through identified scaffold proteins, namely PTGFRN and BASP-1, respectively. Using these scaffold proteins, the engEx^® cell engineering technology, acquired by Lonza from Codiak BioSciences, has been developed to engineer exosome therapeutics including exoSTING^®, exoASO-STAT6^®, and exoIL-12™ exosomes. These have been tested in in vivo tumor models and subsequently evaluated in Phase 1 clinical trials. In particular, exoASO-STAT6 exosomes enable nucleic acid delivery to the tumor microenvironment and provides the ability to reprogram it. The Xcite^® EV platform technology, developed based on the engEx technology, facilitates the generation of engineered EVs and is now available to the broader scientific community via Lonza’s service offerings.

Please enter your email to access content Read now