Qu Biologics Publishes Promising Paper on Novel Treatment for Allergic Airway Disease

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Oct. 13, 2016) - Qu Biologics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing Site Specific Immunomodulators (SSIs) that aim to "reboot" the body's innate immune system, announces the publication, today, of a paper in Nature Publishing Groups' Scientific Reports. This peer-reviewed study, in collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Hirota's laboratory at the University of British Columbia, tested Qu Biologics' immunotherapy approach to successfully reduce airway immune dysfunction in a mouse model of asthma.

Affecting up to 300 million people worldwide, asthma is a chronic disease of the lungs characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing that varies in severity and frequency between individuals. These attacks involve lung inflammation, an altered immune response, and airway narrowing.

Qu Biologics' lung targeted Site Specific Immunomodulator (SSI), derived from Klebsiella, a bacterial pathogen, was tested in a mouse model of allergic airway disease. Treatment with SSI resulted in a decrease in airway inflammation, with reduction in one of the hallmarks of asthma, the T_H2 cytokine response.

These results provide promising support for the potential of Qu Biologics' SSI technology as a novel treatment for inflammatory lung diseases, including asthma. Dr. Hal Gunn, CEO of Qu Biologics stated, "There is an unmet need for new and innovative solutions for treating inflammatory lung diseases. These promising results are encouraging and provide further support for the broad applicability of our immunotherapy platform beyond our current programs in inflammatory bowel disease and cancer."

The publication, entitled "A novel microbe-based treatment that attenuates the inflammatory profile in a mouse model of allergic airway disease," was supported by Mitacs, a national, not-for-profit organization that has been building partnerships between academia and industry in Canada for 17 years. This open-access publication can be viewed online at www.nature.com/articles/srep35338.

For more information about Qu Biologics and the science behind SSIs, please visit www.qubiologics.com.

About Qu Biologics

Qu Biologics is a Vancouver-based private clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing Site Specific Immunomodulators (SSI), a novel class of immunotherapies. SSIs are designed to stimulate an innate immune response in targeted organs or tissues to reverse the chronic inflammation underlying many conditions including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory lung disease and arthritis. SSIs are a broad platform technology being tested in multiple disease indications, including Health Canada approved clinical trials in lung cancer, Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Backed by a prestigious group of scientific advisors and board members, Qu Biologics is led by a management team that includes co-founder and CEO Dr. Hal Gunn, a physician and expert on the body's immune response to chronic disease; and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, former CEO of the BC Cancer Agency and a distinguished clinician, scientist and leader in cancer control in Canada and internationally.

About Dr. Hirota

Jeremy Hirota, Ph.D.'s main research interests revolve around respiratory mucosal immunology in the context of airway disease. His research program uses a translational approach consisting of in vitro studies with primary human airway epithelial and dendritic cells, in vivo mouse models of airway disease, and clinical samples from well phenotyped patients following controlled environmental exposures. The program focuses on identifying the mechanisms governing how environmental exposures can contribute to allergic sensitization and exacerbations of asthma.

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