Page 31 - The Hormel Institute 2024 Annual Report

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Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, PhD
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR FACULTY AFFAIRS / PROFESSOR
We were fortunate to obtain several research grants during the past fiscal year. One is from the National Cancer
Institute (NCI). NCI awarded us a 5-year grant for an amount of approximately $2 million to study whether gut dysbiosis observed both in pregnant mothers with obesity and in their children could cause an increase in daughters’ breast cancer risk.
In murine models, we indeed found an increase in breast cancer among female offspring born to obese murine females, caused by adverse changes in offsprings’ gut microbiomes. We are now investigating if we can prevent the increased breast cancer risk in the offspring
by reversing gut dysbiosis with dietary fiber fed to adolescent offspring or by using drugs that activate immune cells, which are impaired because of the gut dysbiosis.
We began several significant partnerships this year, two of which are to identify specific dietary factors in men and women which reverse the adverse effects of obesity on the gut micro- biome and thus promote health, and identify personalized dietary factors, such as fiber, milk or soy, or their combination, which will reduce breast cancer risk through their effect on the gut
microbiome and inflammatory markers. Another partnership is a study to determine the role of carcinogenic benzo[a]pyrene and cancer-pro- moting volatile BTEX compounds, both origi- nating from vehicle emissions, in the etiology of breast cancer.
Finally, cancer does not only involve mutations in cancer cells, but changes in the cancer environ- ment, such as in immune cells, and these chang- es play a critical role in determining who develops cancer and who will respond to cancer therapies. With the help of Paint the Town Pink funding, we began to study if loneliness increases breast cancer by causing gut dysbiosis. We just submit- ted our findings to a publication showing that
gut dysbiosis in lonely, socially isolated female murine models was the factor explaining an increase in mammary tumorigenesis.
We also received funding from the Masonic Cancer Center to investigate if loneliness caused by racial discrimination is linked to heart disease and gut dysbiosis in breast cancer patients taking aromatase inhibitor therapy to prevent breast cancer recurrence. This study is un- derway and we look forward to sharing those results when available.
Fabia Andrade de Oliveira, Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, SURE intern Rachel Trebesch, Sercan Kenanoglu, and Seema Yadav