Nucleic acid drugs have opened the door to a new world of medicine! The nucleic acid vaccine that relieved the Covid-19 pandemic surprised people with the powerful benefits of nucleic acid drugs, as well as introduced the era of nucleic acid drugs! Dr. Giuseppe Ciaramella, chief technology officer of Moderna, which develops a Covid-19 vaccine, once said “Without LNPs, there would be no mRNA vaccines for COVID-19!” “Modern LNPs can be traced back to work on simpler systems called liposomes”, one of the inventors of LNP, Professor Pieter Cullis, explained.
Genext is one of the few professional teams in the world with experience in developing liposome drugs from the development to global commercial mass production. Genext has mastered important key technologies and patents of LNP: nucleic acids, ionizable phospholipids, PEG phospholipids, LNP formula composition, commercial GMP production, etc. This LNP platform is currently being used to develop oncology products. The candidate LNP drugs will prevent cancer cells from metastasizing and eliminate resistance to chemotherapy drugs.
Cancer cell metastasis and drug resistance are the most tough battlefields in cancer treatment. The development of oncology in the past decades has been unable to achieve effective progress. This is because drugs from small molecules to large molecules only cover the symptoms and fail to accurately answer the root cause! Nucleic acids are the core of biotechnology and the foundation of cancer treatment. The Genext has successfully completed the prototypes of nucleic acid LNP drugs and is ready to move these drugs from the laboratory to the factory. These pipelines will be expected to break through the barriers to cancer treatment and then benefit patients.
Nucleic acids are the answer of other many “undruggable diseases” as well. Genext has begun cooperating with several international research institutions to employ the LNP platform in develop treatments for a number of rare diseases in order to play an important role in this new world of medicine!
Our experiment has shown that nano gold particles can enhance the radiation-induced cell death in cancer cells. This means that nano gold particles have a radiation-enhancing effect. The Genext team is focused on developing nano gold as a radiation enhancer for cancer radiotherapy. This kind of treatment is very beneficial for radiation therapy that is difficult to achieve by surgical resection, such as head and neck cancer radiotherapy. By injecting an appropriate amount of nano gold into the affected area, these nano gold particles can provide radiation enhancement benefits throughout a series of treatments.
Gold, a well-known precious metal, is stable, non-reactive, and not easily destroyed. Interestingly, when it is nano-sized, its properties change significantly. Nano Gold, also known as Colloidal Gold, has long been proven to have good biocompatibility. In high concentrations, it does not cause significant cell death. Moreover, gold, a metal with a high atomic number, releases Auger electrons under X-ray irradiation, which can interact with water molecules to generate free radicals, leading to DNA fragmentation in the cell nucleus and ultimately causing cell death.
In addition to being used as a radiation enhancer, we are also developing Nano Gold with the radioactive gold-198. The gold-198 radioisotope can release beta and gamma rays during decay. Beta rays have strong energy but low penetration, making them effective for killing tumors, while gamma rays have strong penetration and can be detected using a single- photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanner to locate their position. Due to the short half-life of gold-198 (2.4 days), nano particles carrying gold-198 radioisotopes have the potential for liver tumor tracking and killing. Furthermore, we have also developed a technique using microspheres to carry Nano Gold, which can be used to treat liver cancer in an embolic manner and monitor the improvement of lesions.
Currently, the methods for producing Nano Gold can be divided into physical and chemical methods. However, these methods have drawbacks such as slow production, low yield, uneven particle size, and the need for reducing agents. We have developed an optical method for synthesizing Nano Gold, which has excellent advantages such as good size control, outstanding colloidal suspension dispersion, high production capacity, no additional additives, and continuous production capability, making commercialization of nano gold possible.
Liposomes are currently the most successful and renowned special drug delivery platform! This is because it is a formulation platform with the capability to significantly improve the pharmacokinetic properties of drugs, and several products formulated with it have successfully entered the market. More importantly, due to a noticeable enhancement in the original drug's efficacy, several products have almost replaced the original drugs in the market, such as Doxil® (Doxorubicin Liposomal Injection) and AmBisome® (Amphotericin B Liposomal Injection).
Genext is one of the few global professional teams that have independently developed and commercially produced liposomal injections. The team has led at least three self-developed liposomal injection drugs from research and development to mass production, supplying the global market. This experience has gained recognition from international biotech companies, and several international liposomal formulation research and development companies have sought collaboration with Genext, hoping to assist in bringing their laboratory achievements into the pharmaceutical market.
Genext team not only possesses practical execution experience and professional knowledge but also understands the critical industry chain of liposomes: ligand-phospholipid coupling, PEG phospholipid modification, liposomal formulation design, preclinical animal testing modules, and commercial GMP production. Genext team is currently using this platform to develop targeted liposomal drugs. Compared to conventional liposomes, this design can more precisely deliver drugs to target organs or tissues, significantly reducing the risk of drug damage to non-target areas. Simultaneously, the drug becomes more concentrated in the target tissue, leading to a noticeable improvement in efficacy.
Furthermore, liposomes are predecessors to the well-known carriers of nucleic acid drugs in today's context, Lipid NanoParticles (LNPs). Genext is actively collaborating with several international teams to develop LNP nucleic acid drugs, thereby significantly expanding the key industry chain of the original liposome technology platform. The goal is to continue leading the global deepening of liposomal formulation development!