Biotechnology company Circio Holding ASA (OSE:CRNA) announced on Wednesday that it has entered into an evaluation agreement with Canadian biotechnology company Acuitas Therapeutics to assess in vivo CAR-T cell therapy applications.

The collaboration will combine Circio's circVec circular RNA expression platform with Acuitas' proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery system targeting T-cells.

The initiative aims to determine whether the delivery technology can enable effective deployment of circVec for in vivo CAR-T therapies with improved durability.

In vivo CAR-T is an emerging therapeutic area with increasing research and commercial activity, though existing mRNA-based approaches are limited by short expression durations.

Circio has previously demonstrated that its circVec technology can achieve expression in lymphocytes for up to six months, potentially extending the therapeutic window.

Under the agreement, Acuitas will formulate circVec into lipid nanoparticles targeting CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells, while Circio will evaluate performance in both in vitro and in vivo settings.

The collaboration is intended to assess the therapeutic potential of the combined technologies in oncology and autoimmune disease applications.