FAQs | OncoXome

WHY ONCOXOME?

WHY EXOSOMES?

WHY GENE THERAPY?

WHY ONCOXOME?

Exosomes are stable in the circulation, they escape the immune system instead of triggering it, they can cross the blood-brain-barrier, and therefore have the potential to mediate signaling over large distances in the body. They are an ideal non-immunogenic, safe, targeted and efficient vehicle for delivering a therapy payload.

The other delivery systems for therapeutics have significant deficiencies. Most of them are unable to target widespread cancer cells, they trigger the immune system and end up destroyed in the liver. The efficacy of conventional treatments is limited by their poor bioavailability, the resulting high dose requirements resulting in increased toxicity and cancer resistance to treatments. Consequently, there are ongoing efforts to develop new approaches for more effectively delivering therapies to cancer cells without harming the patient’s healthy cells.

By using gene therapy (CRISPR), we target as upstream as possible. We target the source, the mutated oncogene and we knock it out (we do not modify it). Cancer cells are addicted to their driving oncogene: by knocking out their driving oncogene, we induce cancer cell death. Gene therapy is specific, efficacious, easy to use and scalable. Off-target effects are limited because CRISPR has been designed to specifically target mutated DNA.

Other therapeutic approaches target downstream. This means less specificity, more treatment, leading to an increased risk of toxicity, off-target effects and increased costs.

- EFFECTIVE: OncoXome’s approach can enhance efficacy as it directly targets the gene at its mutation.
- TARGETED: The natural targeting of cancer cells by cell-specific exosomes would ensure selective delivery of the therapeutic payload inside the targeted cancer cells.
- VERSATILE: Our engineered exosome platform will adapt to any cancer type. Our approach can be designed to address any of the 14 known KRAS mutations, making it a highly versatile system that can be configured to target
other mutations (BRAF, Pi3K, etc).
- SAFE: OncoXome’s approach will mitigate off-target effects that are common with cancer treatments given the direct targeting provided by the exosomes and highly specific gene therapy.