Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc announced that it has demonstrated in vivo that its proprietary Chimeric Bait Receptor ("CBR") can be delivered into the brain via programmed microglial cells for the potential treatment of brain cancers and certain neurodegenerative diseases. Delivery of therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier is one of the most difficult problems in the treatment of brain cancers and certain Neurodegenerative diseases. The Company believes that autologous HSCs that are genetically modified to make CBR and transplanted back to a patient could give rise to microglial cells in the patient's brain.

Such microglial cells that have been armed with CBR could potentially be able to find and phagocytose (ingest and destroy) either brain cancer cells or abnormal protein aggregations (e.g., amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's). The Company's approach described above may offer a number of benefits: (1) it could deliver CBR therapeutics across the blood brain barrier; (2) CBR-armed microglial cells may not be rejected as they are autologous/patient-derived; (3) CBR-arm microglial cells may provide long-term protection of the brain against cancer or protein aggregations because microglial cells live for a long time; and (4) autologous HSC, which are self-renewing, could become an almost unlimited source of CBR-armed microglal cells for the patient. This is a further indication of the growing range and versatility of CBR as a potential tool against a variety of difficult to treat and deadly conditions.

Research continues on CBR and the Company intends to increase its focus on this once HEMO-CAR-T has entered clinical trials.