Our Technology

The Promise of RNA Immunotherapies

The goal of immuno-oncology therapy is to harness an individual’s immune system and better enable it to identify, attack and kill tumor cells – and to form long lasting immunological memory against such tumors to prevent relapse.

We believe that the best way to significantly improve outcomes for cancer patients is to stimulate not only T cells, as has been the focus of approved immune checkpoint inhibitors and other recent advances in immuno-oncology, but also additional key immune cells within the innate and adaptive immune systems.

We believe RNA immunotherapies are the most promising modality available today to activate multiple arms of the immune system and improve outcomes for cancer patients.

A Unique Therapeutic Approach

Self-amplifying RNA immunotherapies have several properties that differentiate this class from other anti-tumor therapies and make them particularly attractive additions to today’s anti-cancer arsenal.

OUR SELECTIVELY SELF-AMPLIFYING RNA Platform

Combining viral immunotherapies with an RNA-based approach to fight cancer

Watch video to learn more

There has been a notable rise in the development and approval of RNA-based vaccines, most prominently for COVID-19, and therapeutics for certain rare diseases. However, to date, there are no approved RNA-based cancer therapies.

The IV-administration of vRNA immunotherapies is an attractive approach for improving the standard of care for many oncology patients because it allows for all tumors in a patient, including micro-metastases that are sometimes difficult to detect and treat, to be treated directly.

To date, however, the therapeutic benefit of RNA modalities has been limited to rare and infectious diseases. Past investigational cancer programs that utilized IV-administered RNA medicines have failed to generate efficacy in the clinic. Additionally, several mRNA therapies in development for cancer require intratumoral delivery to generate anti-tumor responses.

Our proprietary IV-delivered, self-amplifying RNA platform involves a novel, highly innovative combination of RNA- and viral immunotherapy-based modalities, enabling the potential to deliver a new pillar in cancer therapy.

A Novel Selectively Self-Amplifying RNA Immunotherapy Strategy

Our pioneering IV-administered, self-amplifying RNA approach involves encapsulating the RNA genomes of viruses known to kill cancer cells (i.e., viral immunotherapies) in a lipid nanoparticle (or LNP), creating a vRNA/LNP immunotherapy.

This LNP delivery strategy evades the host immune response and allows for systemic distribution throughout the body to tumor sites. The LNP, which is intended to be less immunogenic than a natural viral capsid, is designed to overcome the challenges caused by neutralizing antibodies that have limited the efficacy of previous industry efforts to administer viruses intravenously to treat tumors.

Once inside the tumor cells, and as is the case with other viral immunotherapies, these genomes replicate and generate a burst of infectious virions that then spread locally and infect and kill adjacent tumor cells. In healthy cells, the innate immune system senses genomic replication, shuts down transcription, and no virions are produced.

Oncorus Selectively Self-Amplifying vRNA Mechanism of Action

Self-Amplifying vRNA Immunotherapy Programs

Our lead vRNA immunotherapy program, ONCR-021, is based on the RNA genome of coxsackievirus A21 (CVA21). This viral genome has demonstrated acceptable safety and tolerability when virions have been administered intravenously in early clinical trials conducted by others, but where efficacy was likely limited by the subsequent development of neutralizing antibodies.

ONCR-021 and any future immunotherapy product candidates to be developed from our selectively self-amplifying RNA platform will utilize shared formulation, regulatory and manufacturing strategies, allowing us to be more efficient in the development of subsequent product candidates.

View our Pipeline to learn more