Mary L. (Nora) Disis, MD

Developing vaccines to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Impact

Forty percent of adults in the United States have obesity. The inflammation found in the fatty tissue of individuals with obesity results in significant metabolic stress and imbalances of the immune cells which can lead to the development of breast cancer. Dr. Disis and her team have created an anti-inflammatory vaccine (ADVac) targeting proteins highly expressed in inflammatory fat, one of the first vaccines designed to lower the risk of developing breast cancer.

Progress Thus Far

In preclinical models of long-term obesity, this new vaccine produced a stronger anti-inflammatory immune response than a control treatment, and the models with the strongest immune responses showed major improvements in blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, comparable to what is seen without obesity. The vaccine also helped restore normal energy use within immune cells found in fat tissue, suggesting it may reverse obesity-related immune dysfunction even when obesity itself remains present. ADVac also significantly reduced fatty liver disease, a common and serious complication of obesity, suggesting the vaccine may help protect the liver in addition to improving metabolism.

What’s next

The team will finalize the ADVac vaccine design by testing different arrangements of its protein components to further optimize the strength of the immune response and will formally evaluate the vaccine’s safety in models before pursuing approval to begin testing in humans. Building on ADVac’s unexpected benefit in fatty liver disease, Dr. Disis and her team will also test whether the vaccine can slow or prevent breast cancer specifically in models with fatty liver disease who do not have obesity, monitoring for effects on liver health, metabolism, and tumor growth.