Korean researchers boost cancer-fighting gene therapy output by up to 25%

A research team led by Park Ji-hoon at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology has developed a new gene delivery technology that improves the production efficiency of next-generation CAR immune cell therapies, which are designed to selectively target and destroy cancer cells.

CAR immune cell therapy is a next-generation cell gene treatment in which a patient's immune cells — T cells or NK cells — are extracted, genetically modified to enhance their ability to track and attack cancer cells, and then reinfused into the patient.

The global CAR-T cell therapy market is expanding rapidly on the strength of high treatment efficacy in blood cancers. Valued at around $4.8 billion in 2026, the market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.6 percent to reach approximately $9 billion by 2031. Growth is driven by a rising number of patients with treatment-resistant blood cancers who do not respond to conventional anticancer drugs, as well as growing demand for personalized cell therapies. However, the high manufacturing cost — roughly $300,000 to $400,000 per patient — remains a significant barrier.

A key step in production is artificially constructing a viral vector stripped of its disease-causing functions. The vector carries the cancer-attacking gene and delivers it into immune cells. Central to this process is the virus's envelope protein — the "key protein" that finds and opens the door on the surface of immune cells.

Existing immune cell therapy production has relied primarily on two envelope proteins as these keys: RD114, derived from a feline retrovirus, and VSV-G, obtained from vesicular stomatitis virus found in cattle and pigs. VSV-G serves as the key protein in lentiviral vectors, while RD114 is the standard key protein used in retroviral vectors.

While searching for new viral species to improve production efficiency, the research team turned its attention to the SRV2 envelope protein, a component of simian retrovirus type 2.

Experiments showed that the new SRV2-based vector significantly outperformed the conventional RD114 approach in viral output and was markedly more efficient at expressing genes in both T cells and NK cells. CAR-T cells produced using SRV2 showed a cancer-attacking gene expression rate approximately 20 to 25 percent higher than those made with the existing method.

Animal test results were equally promising. When leukemia cells were introduced into mice, untreated animals developed tumors around day 10 and all died by day 46. Among mice treated with the conventional RD114-based CAR-T therapy, two of four developed tumors on day 33 and died on day 63. By contrast, mice treated with the new SRV2-based CAR-T therapy showed slower cancer cell growth — only one of four developed a tumor, on day 41, and died on day 71, while the remaining three showed no tumor growth throughout the experiment.

The team has completed optimization of the SRV2-based gene vector manufacturing process, including establishing plasmid ratios and production protocols, and plans to continue research aimed at large-scale production and commercialization.

"The significance of this work lies in identifying a new candidate that outperforms the widely used gene key RD114 in its ability to modify immune cells with anticancer genes," Park said.

The findings were published in the international journal Nature Communications.