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Cancer therapy

An oncolytic circular RNA therapy

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In vitro-transcribed RNA is a promising emerging class of therapeutic, but the poor specificity of cargo RNAs so far has limited their application in cancer immunotherapy. A new study reports the delivery of a synthetic circular RNA with inline cis-acting translational elements — encoding an engineered, mitochondrion-specific oncolytic protein — that shows both therapeutic and prophylactic potential against adenocarcinoma.

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Fig. 1: Overview of adenocarcinoma treatment using circular RNA.

Change history

  • 14 February 2024

    In the version of the article initially published, several instances of "translated" and "translational" originally appeared as "transcribed" and "transcriptional". This has now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Alex G. Hamilton & Michael J. Mitchell

  2. Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael J. Mitchell

  3. Institute for Immunology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael J. Mitchell

  4. Cardiovascular Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael J. Mitchell

  5. Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael J. Mitchell

  6. Institute for RNA Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michael J. Mitchell

Authors
  1. Alex G. Hamilton
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  2. Michael J. Mitchell
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Correspondence to Michael J. Mitchell.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hamilton, A.G., Mitchell, M.J. An oncolytic circular RNA therapy. Nat Cancer 5, 5–7 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-023-00627-7

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