Defence Therapeutics Inc. announced the publication of its new international (PCT) patent application demonstrating the effectiveness of Defence's AccumTM-based technology to intracellularly deliver a wide variety of cargoes while circumventing the problem of endosomal entrapment. The PCT application, which was published on June 15, 2023 as WO/2023/102661 A1 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), contains data showing the efficient cytosolic/nuclear delivery of multiple therapeutically relevant cargoes, including polynucleotides, recombinant proteins, and even nucleoprotein complexes. Notably, the results contained in the PCT application demonstrate the successful nuclear delivery of functional CRISPR/Cas9 and guide RNA ribonucleoprotein complexes by Accumâ„¢?

variants. These findings not only display the broad applicability of Defence's Accumâ„¢?-based platform technology, but importantly pave the way for additional future strategic collaborations, particularly in the fast-growing field of genome editing. The ability of Accumâ„¢?

to deliver large and functional ribonucleoprotein complexes into the nucleus of cells represents a key discovery, one which may address an important roadblock currently hindering the development of genome editing-based therapies. This published PCT application further contains in vivo data demonstrating the efficacy of Defence's AccumTM®?-based technology in transforming traditionally non-antigen presenting and immune quiescing cells, like mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), into efficient antigen presenters and immunostimulatory cells in the form of an anti-cancer cellular vaccine. This initial discovery spawned the development of Defence's potent second-generation MSC-based therapeutic ARM vaccine for lymphoma, which yielded extraordinary results in a recent pre-clinical study, and is quickly progressing into Phase I clinical trials in the near future.