Recently, CanSino Biologics’ subsidiary, CanSino (Shanghai) Biological Research Co., Ltd. , in collaboration with JenKem Technology Inc., successfully developed a novel three-component lipid nanoparticle (ISL-3C-LNP) delivery system based on ionizable sterol lipid (ISL) compounds. Through rational design and systematic screening, the researchers identified a series of ISL compounds with excellent performance. The study was published in the internationally renowned journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

The results demonstrated that ISL-3C-LNP, as a simplified formulation with a strong intellectual property position, significantly enhances both safety and cellular immune responses.

In the field of mRNA delivery, LNPs (lipid nanoparticles) are the core delivery platform, and several LNP-based mRNA vaccines have already been approved for market use. However, traditional four-component LNPs (4C-LNPs) face challenges such as liver accumulation and systemic innate immune activation, raising safety concerns and leaving room for improvement in efficacy.

Unlike concentional LNPs that are highly enriched in the liver, ISL-3C-LNPs enable localized expression of mRNA at the injection site after intramuscular administration. This feature significantly reduces the risk of systemic adverse effects and improves overall safety. Additionally, ISL-3C-LNPs elicit a stronger antigen-specific T cell immune response, including increased frequencies of IFN-γ⁺ and TNF α⁺ T cells, offering a powerful tool for therapies dependent on cellular immunity, such as cancer vaccines. Moreover, the ISL-3C-LNP formulation breaks through the patent barriers associated with traditional four-component LNPs by using newly developed ISL compounds with fully proprietary intellectual property rights.

This innovative delivery system offers a new technological option for mRNA vaccine development, especially in therapeutic areas requiring robust cellular immune responses, such as cancer immunotherapy. The development of ISL-3C-LNP not only overcomes patent limitations of conventional LNPs but also provides enhanced immunogenicity and improved safety features, offering a novel design strategy for next-generation mRNA vaccines.

Looking ahead, CanSinoBIO will continue to deepen research into the underlying mechanisms of ISL-3C-LNPs and , leveraging advanced platforms such as mRNA, will further advance this fully proprietary delivery technology to empower broader applications in infectious disease prevention and cancer immunotherapy—contributing meaningfully to global public health.