A recent breakthrough from RocRock Bio's globally unique core technology platform has been published in Heliyon (a Cell Press publication) on November 18th. Titled "Enhanced infection efficiency and cytotoxicity mediated by Vpx-containing lentivirus in chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M)", the article highlights significant advancements in improving the infection efficiency and cytotoxicity of Vpx-containing lentivirus in CAR-M.

This project, led by RocRock Bio and conducted jointly with the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, was completed over two years and represents a successful case of industry-academia-research collaboration. The research systematically addressed the historical challenge of the low transfection efficiency of macrophages using lentiviruses and other retroviruses, increasing the targeting and editing efficiency of human monocytes, dendritic cells, and macrophages from 1-3% to 74%, with the latest optimized conditions achieving up to over 97%.

Macrophages play a crucial role in cancer, chronic diseases like autoimmune diseases, and organ aging, with broad prospects for drug development. Similar to T-cell and NK-cell therapies, efficient gene transfer is vital for macrophage-based treatments. However, human primary monocytes and macrophages are inherently resistant to lentivirus infection, hindering the development of lentivirus-based macrophage drugs. To overcome this, RocRock Bio modified the lentivirus carrier structure to enhance the infection efficiency of human macrophages. After two years of joint research, a lentivirus transfection platform was successfully established. Using Vpx protein-modified lentiviruses, this platform generates gene-engineered macrophages with high gene transfer efficiency and stable pro-inflammatory phenotypes, showing great potential in cancer treatment. The modified lentivirus also significantly improves the proliferation and phagocytosis abilities of macrophages.

As a core technological achievement of RocRock Bio, this research lays a solid foundation for the rapid development and pipeline advancement of the company's CAR-M therapy platform, which focuses on cancer, chronic diseases, and aging.