Nobel Award Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Discoveries
This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.
Three esteemed scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.
Their work identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells capable of attacking the organism.
The discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and cancer.
These laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.
Decisive Discoveries
"The work has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.
The trio's studies address a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?
Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for indicators of disease, even viruses and germs it has not met before.
These defenders utilize sensors—known as recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.
That provides the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces white blood cells that can target the body.
Security Guards of the Immune System
Scientists previously understood that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.
This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the body to neutralize any defenders that assault the healthy cells.
We know that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.
The Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have established a new field of research and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."
Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the system from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.
In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Studies
Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.
The researcher showed that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the host.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells function.
"The groundbreaking work has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science specialist.
"The research is a striking example of how basic physiological study can have broad implications for public health."
