-CILA Therapeutics has been awarded a competitive grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to advance the development of its proprietary CIL-Key™ platform — a novel, gene-agnostic delivery technology that significantly and reproducibly enhances the transfection efficiency and delivery of inhaled RNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles (RNA-LNPs) into lung epithelial cells.

In preclinical studies, the CIL-Key™ platform (also referred to as CIL-0X in the grant) achieved up to a 430% increase in delivery of functionally intact RNA into human bronchial epithelial cells cultured at an air-liquid interface (ALI), demonstrating utility across multiple RNA-LNP formulations.

“This milestone provides strong validation of CILA’s scientific approach and vision to deliver practical, scalable and patient-centric solutions for some of the most formidable challenges in pulmonary medicine,” said Safia Rizvi, CEO of CILA Therapeutics.

CIL-Key™ is designed to enable efficient, localized intracellular delivery of RNA-based modalities while minimizing systemic exposure. The platform could offer significant advantages for companies developing inhaled RNA therapies and vaccines for a broad range of lung diseases, including Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), Cystic Fibrosis (CF), COPD and Pulmonary Fibrosis, as well as respiratory infections including influenza, RSV and COVID-19.

Chronic pulmonary diseases affect more than 34 million people in the U.S. and more than 545 million globally. These often progressive, life-limiting conditions have a significant impact on quality of life and a high economic burden, creating an urgent demand for novel, effective and easy-to-administer treatments like those powered by CIL-Key™.