Technology

Oncolytic Virotherapy

Oncolytic viruses (OVs) are designed to directly kill tumor cells and induce an anti-tumor immune response. However, the clinical benefit of existing OVs remains limited, due to the inability to improve overall survival for patients. Virogin aims to engineer the viral genome and improve its potency by enhancing replication efficiency and arming the OV with therapeutic transgenes (payloads).
Virogin has developed an oncolytic HSV-1 platform capable of triggering long-lasting anti-tumor activity that leads to systemic cancer immunity.

Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1) Platform Features

Transcription & Translation Dual Regulation to enhance viral replication in tumor cells

While many viruses are weakened to prevent toxicity, we engineer HSV-1 to boost oncolytic effect and therapeutic transgene expression without compromising safety by incorporating cancer-associated promoters that drive expression of essential viral genes and therapeutic payloads, and microRNA-dependent attenuation to block viral gene translation in normal cells.

Core Payloads (IL-12, IL-15, IL-15Rα) to stimulate a strong anti-tumor response

While many therapies focus on enhancing T cells’ ability to eliminate tumor cells, our HSV-1 encodes IL-12, IL-15, and IL-15Rα to induce both innate and adaptive anti-tumor responses that will activate systemic cancer immunity.

Prime-Boost Approach

We are committed to realizing the full potential of oncolytic virotherapy. To augment the anti-tumor response in harder-to-treat cancers, we are leveraging the administration of mRNA-based therapeutic cancer vaccines to PRIME a robust T cell response against tumor antigens before using our HSV-1 to BOOST the anti-tumor effect.

Why mRNA cancer vaccines:

Through strategic collaborations, we are well-positioned to build a next-generation mRNA cancer vaccine to complement our oncolytic HSV-1 platform.