Evox Therapeutics Ltd., a exosome therapeutics company, entered into a research collaboration and option agreement with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The collaboration will work on developing exosome encapsulated AAV (exoAAV) vectors as a novel gene delivery technology aimed at improving treatments for heart disease.

Evox and Icahn Mount Sinai are focused on tackling a long-standing challenge in cardiovascular medicine, namely the safe and effective delivery of genetic medicines to cardiomyocytes. By enhancing the precision of gene delivery to heart muscle cells and cleverly evading the immune response, this novel exoAAV technology has the potential to redefine the use of gene therapy in the cardiovascular disease field.

The agreement builds on this initial phase of work by combining Evox’s exosome technology and capabilities with Icahn Mount Sinai’s deep understanding of gene delivery and expertise in cardiovascular research and clinical translation.

“This project is a significant step for Evox as it expands the reach of exosome-mediated delivery of genetic medicines to another organ outside of the liver,” said Antonin de Fougerolles, CEO of Evox. “The work done by Dr. Sahoo and colleagues has already demonstrated that exosomes can significantly improve the in vivo delivery of AAV gene therapy to cardiomyocytes and could do so even in the presence of high levels of neutralizing anti-AAV antibodies, thus offering the possibility of an exosome-mediated gene therapy that could be used to treat all patients irrespective of their immunological status. We believe that we can play an important role in advancing this important research toward clinical impact.”

Susmita Sahoo, associate professor of medicine, cardiology at Icahn Mount Sinai, said, “We are excited to work with Evox to advance this research. We hope to unlock the therapeutic potential of exosome encapsulated AAVs, which could represent a transformative step in gene therapy and a major breakthrough in the treatment of heart diseases.”