Lemonex develops new drug delivery system for siRNA therapeutics

Lemonex, a biotechnology company developing next generation RNA and immuno-oncology therapeutics, announced Thursday that it has developed a drug delivery system (DDS) highly effective for small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics based on its proprietary platform technology, DegradaBALL.

DegradaBALL is an innovative modular DDS based on porous solid nanoparticle, having many favorable properties for RNA delivery such as convenient drug loading, effective intracellular uptake, biocompatibility and sustained release profile, the company explained.

It is suitable for local injection enabling effective therapeutic outcome with less and fewer doses. Unlike lipid nanoparticles, DegradaBALL can be pre-manufactured as empty particles and stored as powder for years at room temperature until needed, according to the firm.

Drugs can be loaded simply by mixing with DegradaBALL in water for several minutes under ambient conditions.

By optimizing DegradaBALL for siRNA delivery, Lemonex has developed LEM-S401, siRNA therapeutics to treat skin fibrosis by local injection.

Skin fibrosis occurs in a variety of human diseases but there are no sufficient treatments as of yet.

According to Lemoex, LEM-S401 effectively inhibited the formation of hypertrophic scars in wound-associated dermal fibrosis mouse models during the epidermis recovery and tissue remodeling process. And much less RNA and fewer injections were applied compared to other competitors, it added.

“Now, Lemonex has successfully shown that DegradaBALL could become a key platform technology for siRNA therapeutics. We are expanding our drug pipelines in the area of RNAi therapeutics to target various indications by changing siRNA sequences, said Lemonex CTO Min Dal-hee.

“In addition, owing to wide applicability of DegradaBALL, we can expand our pipelines by loading antibody drug in DegradaBALL, which then enables intracellular delivery of antibody or local delivery of antibody.”

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)