Circio Unveils Next-Generation Circular RNA Expression Platform
The company’s circVec 4.0 demonstrates unprecedented gene expression levels in heart and brain tissues to open new therapeutic opportunities across multiple organs.
Norwegian biotech, Circio Holding ASA, has unveiled significant advancements in its circVec circular RNA expression platform with the launch of its circVec 4.0 construct. The company’s next-generation design delivers a 50% increase for heart-specific circVec-AAV in gene expression over the previous circVec 3 generation, which already outperformed conventional mRNA-based adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors by roughly 40-fold in heart tissue (1). The findings demonstrate circVec’s ability to overcome key limitations of conventional AAV vectors and reinforce its potential to make AAV-based gene therapies safer, more efficient, and commercially sustainable.
The company’s latest findings not only validate heart tissue data, but present breakthrough evidence of circVec’s potential in other tissues also. New data reveals a promising four-fold increase in gene expression in the brain, indicating that circVec could be instrumental in developing therapies for central nervous system (CNS) diseases, whilst also demonstrating a seven-fold increased activity in the eye (1).
“These results clearly demonstrate the significant potential of circVec to make heart disease gene therapies more effective and safer for patients. Early data suggests that the circVec advantages also apply for AAVs delivered locally to the eye and CNS, and we are currently exploring these findings in a set of ongoing in vivoexperiments,” said Circio’s CTO, Dr. Thomas B Hansen, in a company press release (1). We are expanding our science team in Stockholm to advance these opportunities, and look forward to an exciting 2026 with many important R&D milestones.”
“The technical achievements of Circio’s research team continue to impress, especially given our lean, cost-efficient set-up. These achievements have now led to Circio entering its first agreement with a major pharmaceutical company,” added Circio’s CEO Dr. Erik Digman Wiklund, in the press release (1). “This provides important validation of our circVec technology and opens novel therapeutic and commercial possibilities for the future. We are expanding the circVec platform with both gene and cell therapy programs, which we anticipate will create several opportunities for additional partnerships.”
The circVec platform is built around a modular genetic construct that drives efficient formation of circular RNA directly inside target cells to enable more stable and long‑lasting RNA molecules than conventional linear messenger RNA designs (2). This architecture is intended to be plug‑and‑play, so the same core platform can be adapted across multiple delivery systems and therapeutic targets.
Circio highlights potential applications for circVec across genetic medicine, cell therapies and treatments for chronic diseases, to reflect its ambition to build a versatile engine for next‑generation nucleic acid therapeutics. With emerging in vivo data across multiple organs, the platform positions circVec as the foundation for new partnerships, indications and commercial opportunities in AAV and beyond.
References
Circio. Circio Presents Data that Further Strengthens and Broadens its circVec Circular RNA Expression Platform. Press Release, Nov. 24, 2025.
Circio. Building Next Generation RNA Therapeutics for Genetic Medicine and Beyond. Circio.com, accessed Nov. 27, 2025.