# Obesity, inflammation and breast cancer

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $348,842

## Abstract

   
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):  Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer type (~1,383,500 new cases/year), the leading cause of cancer-associated death among woman worldwide (~458,400 death/year), and the 2nd most lethal cancer in the United States. Obesity happens in 36% adults in the United States, contributing to breast-cancer incidence and progression. Whereas several inflammatory cytokines are implicated in breast cancer, their distinct roles in obesity-driven cancer progression are largely elusive. Our preliminary data identified interleukin-1 (IL-1)/IL-1R1 signaling cascade to be required for obesity-driven breast cancer progression (ODBP) from different tumor models. Our long-term goal is to understand the mechanisms that underlie ODBP, and to prevent or treat obese breast-cancer patients. The objective of the proposed research is to determine the mechanism how NLRC4-inflammasome and IL-l/IL-1R1 axis drive breast-cancer progression under obese condition. Our central hypothesis is that some danger signal from obese tumors induces NLRC4-inflammasome activation and subsequent IL-1β production in tumor-associated stroma, which in turn promotes tumor progression through the induction of angiogenesis. We thus propose the following specific aims: Specific Aim 1: Determine the relevance of NLRC4-inflammasome in ODBP. Specific Aim 2: Determine how NLRC4 promotes ODBP within the tumor microenvironment; Specific Aim 3: Explore novel combinatory regimens to treat obese breast-cancer patients. Our results are expected to have a positive impact on guiding targeted therapy for inhibiting the breast-cancer progression in obese patients. The potential application of available agents, such as anakinra (known to be safe and effective for the treatment of other diseases) or some long-lasting Casp-1 inhibitors for breast-cancer therapy, would significantly shorten the drug development process. The study may potentially benefit the over one third of breast-cancer patients considering that ~36% adults are obese in the United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9879717
- **Project number:** 5R01CA200673-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Weizhou Zhang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $348,842
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2015-12-07 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9879717

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9879717, Obesity, inflammation and breast cancer (5R01CA200673-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9879717. Licensed CC0.

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