A Chinese company says it slowed an aggressive form of cancer in the first human test of a gene therapy technique that aims to coax the brain into healing itself.
Shanghai-based NeuExcell Therapeutics reported preliminary, unpublished results from 11 patients with recurrent malignant glioma, a deadly brain tumor with few treatments, let alone one that significantly alters the course of the disease.
The case reflects a growing pattern in which
Chinese biotechs reach scientific and regulatory firsts
, aided by China’s regulatory system that provides a quick way to launch studies in humans.
NeuExcell is touting the results as evidence of clinical promise, but critics question the findings, saying the approach wasn’t ready to test in patients because the biological mechanism hasn’t been proven.
Gong Chen, the co-founder and chief scientific advisor of NeuExcell, told
Endpoints News
he’s not surprised to hear of the skepticism. It’s something the company has faced while “pushing through” its technology in recent years, he said.
NeuExcell seeks to rewire parts of the brain through a gene therapy approach known as “
in situ
conversion.” The idea: It’s better to change the identity of cells, rather than the common strategy of trying to kill cancer cells that proliferate.
The aim is to deliver the transcription factor NeuroD1 and reprogram glial support cells directly into functional neurons. It appears NeuExcell is the only gene therapy company pursuing the NeuroD1 path.
The patients had surgery to remove their tumors, and then the gene therapy called NXL-004 was injected.
The therapy was safe, and on average, patients lived more than 12 months, compared to the six to nine months that is typical for this type of cancer, NeuExcell claimed. One patient achieved a complete response, meaning there’s no longer a cancer signal.
“Bringing a patient from the brink of death to life is more than a million words of argument,” Chen said. He said additional study details will be provided in forthcoming publications.
Co-founded by Chen in 2016, NeuExcell has raised $36 million, backed by
Chinese investors
such as Shanghai Zhangjiang Leading Qifan Venture Capital.
Based on the study results, it’s raising more money to advance its therapeutic candidates. In April 2025, it launched a study in Alzheimer’s disease that aims to reverse neurodegeneration.
The glioma results are early, and they stem from an
investigator-initiated study
. Unlike a traditional clinical trial, these studies require clearance from a Chinese research hospital rather than national regulators. NeuExcell and the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University conducted this study jointly.
Donald O’Rourke, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pennsylvania who has treated glioblastoma patients for 25 years, said he takes the results “with a huge grain of salt,” given that it was an investigator-initiated study overseas and the limited number of patients.
He said there’s good reason that others aren’t pursuing NeuExcell’s strategy, as research has shown that the most effective cancer treatments are the ones that
target specific genetic mutations
.
“If this were something that people were excited about, we’d be adopting it,” O’Rourke said of
in situ
conversion therapy.
NeuExcell grew out of Chen’s past academic work at UPenn, where he researched neuron loss that can stoke deadly neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
In a 2013
paper published in the journal
Cell Stem Cell
, Chen and his team found in mice that the expression of NeuroD1 converted astrocytes and other glial cells, normally just helpers, into neurons. It presented a potential way to repair damaged brain cells.
Scientific backlash came nearly a decade later when a 2021 paper published in the journal
Cell
questioned whether glia-to-neuron conversion actually happens in a living brain. The results suggested what looked like conversion might be misidentified native neurons, not glia that became neurons.
Chen said the publication drove off investors and potential partners, who have since expressed renewed interest due to NeuExcell’s preliminary study results and additional independent research. A
2025 paper
added some support for the concept, but only for a brief period of time after injury.
Benedikt Berninger, a professor of developmental neurobiology at King’s College London, who works on converting support cells into neurons, called NeuExcell’s glioma study “premature.”
“There are many researchers like myself who believe in this approach, but I believe that we still need to figure out how to make it really work,” Berninger said.
He said he believes that NeuExcell has not adequately addressed findings that AAV-based experiments can make it appear as if glial cells have turned into neurons when they have not. He said he worries that NeuExcell’s human data could be used to justify expanding the approach before the basic science is settled.