INOVIQ reports 88% kill rate of breast and lung cancer cells in CAR-exosome therapy study

INOVIQ (ASX: IIQ) has reported superior efficacy from an in vitro study of CAR-exosomes cancer therapy that killed almost 88% of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and lung cancer cells within 96 hours.

Real-time cell analysis demonstrated that CAR-NK-EVs — chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cells derived from extracellular vesicles — exerted a significant cytotoxic effect on TNBC and non-small-cell lung cancer (Calu-3) cells compared to control treatments.

Data from three independent experiments showed that treatment with 2.5 million CAR-NK-EVs resulted in 87.8% cell death in TNBC and Calu-3 cells respectively within four days.

Major success

The in vitro results mark a major success for CAR-exosome therapy, showing it works well against two solid tumours.

It could lead to an ‘off-the-shelf’ therapy produced and purified for quality and shelf life, compared to traditional treatments that must be customised.

CAR-exosomes are reportedly fast to produce, easy to use and more effective than cell therapies such as CAR-T.

Effective treatment

Chief scientific officer Professor Greg Rice said the in vitro studies had proved CAR-exosome therapy could be an effective treatment for aggressive cancers.

“Our exosome therapeutic platform has now been validated, demonstrating its potential to deliver transformative ‘off-the-shelf’ therapies,” he said.

“The platform offers potential cost, safety and efficacy advantages over traditional CAR-T cell therapies and will enable development of targeted therapeutics for multiple cancer types.”

Further studies

Chair David Williams said the result moved the company closer to delivering life-changing treatments for cancer patients.

INOVIQ will now subject CAR-exosome therapy to in vivo studies on mice to see how it performs in living organisms.

Human clinical trials will follow these animal studies.