Self-amplifying and circular RNA therapeutics
RNA drugs that copy themselves inside the cell, or are made as a loop so they last longer. Both aim to get more protein from a smaller dose.
Self-amplifying RNA carries a replicase, so a small dose produces protein for days; circular RNA has no free ends, resists exonucleases, and is translated for longer than linear mRNA. Both are being applied to cancer vaccines and to in vivo expression of antibodies, cytokines, and CAR constructs. Oncology work is early phase and largely company-reported; the approved precedent is a self-amplifying COVID-19 vaccine, not a cancer therapy.
How it works
An alphavirus-derived replicase amplifies the transcript in the cytoplasm (saRNA), or a permuted intron-exon strategy circularises the RNA to extend its half-life; both are delivered in lipid nanoparticles.
- Lower dose for the same protein output
- Longer expression than linear mRNA
- Shares manufacturing with approved mRNA vaccines
- Innate sensing of double-stranded replication intermediates
- Little peer-reviewed oncology efficacy data
- Same delivery ceiling as all lipid nanoparticles: the liver takes most of it
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"Self-amplifying and circular RNA therapeutics" OR ABSTRACT:"Self-amplifying and circular RNA therapeutics") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Self-amplifying and circular RNA therapeutics, not a curated reading list.
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