LEEDS, England, May 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- 4D pharma plc (AIM: DDDD), a pharmaceutical company leading the development of Live Biotherapeutics, today announces its participation in the Neuro4D conference, Frankfurt, Germany, 13-14 May, 2019.

4D's Research and Development team is giving a poster presentation entitled "Gut microbiome-derived bacterial strains have the ability to modulate neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in Parkinson's Disease models" on preclinical data from the Company's lead Parkinson's disease candidates, MRx0005 and MRx0029.

These two single-strain Live Biotherapeutic candidates were selected using 4D's proprietary MicroRx^® platform. They act in different but complementary ways, both relevant to Parkinson's disease. MRx0005 exhibited neuroprotective effects in terms of reducing neuroinflammation in vitro and MRx0029 demonstrated the ability to protect against the loss of dopaminergic neurons (neurons that produce dopamine), in an industry-standard preclinical model.  

Alex Stevenson, 4D's Chief Scientific Officer, commented, "We are excited to see these neuroprotective effects in preclinical models of Parkinson's disease. Our aim is to develop a well-tolerated novel class of therapy that acts on the main disease pathologies and not only halts the progression of the disease but also reverses it."

4D pharma's Dr Anna Ettorre, Senior Immunologist Team Leader, will give a presentation on the same subject, "From Screening to Pre-Clinical Efficacy of Microbiome-Derived Bacterial Strains that Modulate Neuroinflammatory and Neurodegenerative Processes in Parkinson's Disease models" at the Keystone Symposia: Neurodegenerative Diseases: New Insights and Therapeutic Opportunities, USA on June 19.

A copy of the poster can be found at: https://www.4dpharmaplc.com/en/newsroom/posters-and-publications

About 4D

Founded in February 2014, 4D is a world leader in the development of Live Biotherapeutics, a novel and emerging class of drugs, defined by the FDA as biological products that contain a live organism, such as a bacterium, that is applicable to the prevention, treatment or cure of a disease. 4D has developed a proprietary platform that rationally identifies novel bacteria based on a deep understanding of function and mechanism. 4D's Live Biotherapeutic products are orally delivered single strains of bacteria that are naturally found in the healthy human gut. 4D has three clinical studies in progress, namely a phase II clinical study of Blautix in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a phase I/II study of MRx0518 in combination with Keytruda^® in solid tumours and a phase I study of MRx0518 in a neoadjuvant setting for patients with solid tumours. Other focus programmes include disease areas such as asthma and CNS disease. 

About Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that mainly affects the movement system. People with Parkinson's don't have enough of the chemical dopamine because some of the nerve cells (dopaminergic neurons), located in part of the brain called the substantia nigra, that make it have died. Dopamine plays a vital role in regulating the movement of the body. A reduction in dopamine is responsible for many of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Early in the disease the disease, the most obvious symptoms are shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement, and difficulty with walking. Thinking and behavioral problems may also occur. Dementia becomes common in the advanced stages of the disease. Parkinson's disease is the second most common age-related neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. An estimated seven to 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson's disease.

For more information, refer to https://www.4dpharmaplc.com/.

For further information please contact:

4D
Duncan Peyton, Chief Executive Officer: +44 (0)113-895-0130
Fay Weston, Head of Investor Relations: +44 (0)7990-381713

SOURCE 4D pharma plc

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