SUZHOU, China, Aug. 23,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Abogen Biosciences ("Abogen" or
the "Company") announced a publication titled "Efficient
circularization of protein-encoding RNAs via a novel
cis-splicing system " in Nucleic Acids Research. In
the article, Abogen has revealed a highly efficient RNA
circularization cis-splicing system (referred to as the
"Cis-System") which enables the production of circular RNA
("circRNA") with significantly extended protein expression, reduced
innate immune activation, and flexible splice site design that
offers substantial market potential.
![Screenshot of published paper (PRNewsfoto/艾博生物) Screenshot of published paper (PRNewsfoto/艾博生物)](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2488526/image_1.jpg)
In recent years, circular RNA technology has gained significant
attention from the biopharmaceutical industry, several circular RNA
start-up companies raised a total of over 1
billion dollars in financing. Among the most notable are
Flagship-incubated Sail Biomedicines (formed through the merger of
Laronde and Senda Biosciences), which has raised nearly
$800 million, and Orna Therapeutics,
founded by MIT Professor Daniel
Anderson, secured over $300
million in funding and recently acquired ReNAgade
Therapeutics to accelerate its clinical development.
Abogen's Cis-System-based circRNA not only has global IP, but
also improves over PIE System
The conventional technology for circRNA synthesis is
the PIE method (Permuted Introns and Exons), patented by Orna and
other companies. However, the Cis-System not only circumvents the
patent restrictions by the PIE system, but also simplifies the
circularization process and makes it more suitable for industrial
production. As described in the publication, the Cis-System embeds
a ribozyme core structure at one end of the precursor RNA,
rendering the need for additional spacer elements between the
ribozyme and the target gene. This invention significantly enhances
the circularization efficiency thus offers a "scarless" and highly
efficient translation process with less process-related
impurities.
The Cis-System-based circRNA shows promising prospects for
the future
The Cis-System reported in this study can achieve high
circularization efficiency with essentially unrestricted base and
sequence composition at the ends of RNA molecules, enabling truly
efficient and scarless circularization. Furthermore, the Cis-System
is designed to be more flexible, allowing customization based on
specific therapeutic needs and compatibility with RNA molecule of
different lengths. All these technological advances will lead to
more sustained protein expression, reduced innate immune
stimulation, and potential tissue-specific expression, which
potentially bring more hopes in chronic disease treatment and
immunotherapies where repeated dosing may be required.
Dr. Shaojun Qi, Senior Scientist in mRNA Innovation department
at Abogen commented:
"I deeply appreciated the innovative culture at Abogen which is
crucial for our success in overcoming the key bottlenecks in
circular RNA technology. "
Dr. Peng Gao, Vice President of
Abogen (corresponding author of the publication), commented:
"After over two years of commitment and continuous efforts, our
team has finally overcome the critical technical hurdle presented
in circRNA technology. Preliminary results from further studies
have reinforced the great value and application potential of this
technology. We hope to rapidly translate this achievement into
clinical solutions to address the unmet medical needs."
Link for the Original Paper
Shaojun Qi, Huiming Wang, Guopeng
Liu, Qianshan Qin, Peng Gao,
Bo Ying, Efficient Circularization
of Protein-Encoding RNAs via a Novel Cis-Splicing System, *Nucleic
Acids Research*, 2024;, gkae711,
[https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae711](https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkae711)
About Abogen Biosciences
Abogen Biosciences("Abogen") is an innovative
biopharmaceutical company focused on messenger RNA (mRNA) drug
development.
The company has established its own industry-leading proprietary mRNA platform and nanoparticle delivery system
and is one of the few mRNA drug R&D enterprises in China with complete capabilities across mRNA
value chain, covering all aspects from mRNA design, formulation
development to large-scale manufacturing. The company has
established a diversified product pipeline, with products ranging
from infectious disease prevention and control, tumor immunology,
to protein replacement therapies.
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SOURCE Abogen Biosciences