Strand Therapeutics Presents Preclinical Data on Programmable mRNA Therapy STX-001 at AACR 2023

April 17, 2023 |

2 min read

Strand Therapeutics announced today preclinical data from its programmable mRNA therapy STX-001, a multi-modal synthetic self-replicating mRNA technology that delivers a prolonged and locally-acting IL-12 cytokine to the tumor microenvironment.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Strand Therapeutics, the programmable mRNA company developing curative therapies for cancer and other diseases, announced today preclinical data from its programmable mRNA therapy STX-001, a multi-modal synthetic self-replicating mRNA technology that delivers a prolonged and locally-acting IL-12 cytokine to the tumor microenvironment.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, but only a minority of patients experience durable clinical responses. One of the reasons for this limited efficacy is the failure of immune checkpoint inhibitors to sufficiently activate and recruit T cells into the tumor microenvironment.

STX-001, when delivered directly to the tumor, induces a highly immunogenic tumor cell death while the mRNA-encoded IL-12 payload promotes recruitment of effector T cells and NK cells into the tumor microenvironment. STX-001 shows promise as a new approach to improve the efficacy of current immunotherapies for solid tumors. STX-001’s self-replicating mRNA technology induces immunogenic tumor cell death and promotes recruitment of T cells and NK cells to the tumor microenvironment as well as their activation.

“Our programmable mRNA therapy STX-001 overcomes the limitations of current immunotherapy to improve clinical responses to solid tumors. The major breakthrough is that we’ve shown for the first time our therapy enables the delivery of therapeutic quantities of IL-12 with greater efficacy than conventional mRNA,” said Tasuku Kitada, Ph.D., President and Head of R&D of Strand Therapeutics.

“This early data also shows that STX-001 induces durable anti-tumor responses and enhances efficacy when combined with PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors. STX-001 represents a promising new approach for the treatment of solid tumors, and we look forward to advancing this candidate into clinical trials later this year,” said Prashant Nambiar, DVM, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Research and Translational Development.

About Strand Therapeutics

Strand Therapeutics is a next-generation biotechnology company committed to transforming the lives of patients by developing first-in-class programmable mRNA therapeutics. Founded by leaders in mRNA-based synthetic biology at MIT, Strand is creating the first platform for programmable, long-acting mRNA therapeutics that are bioengineered to enable precise control of the location, timing, intensity, and duration of therapeutic activity. Strand’s mission is to develop improved treatment options for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, visit www.strandtx.com. Follow us on Twitter @StrandTx.