Nobel Prize Honors Groundbreaking Body's Defenses Discoveries
The prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.
A trio of renowned scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.
The work identified unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue immune cells capable of harming the organism.
The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.
These laureates will divide a prize fund valued at 11m SEK.
Decisive Findings
"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the award panel.
The team's studies explain a core mystery: In what way does the immune system protect us from countless invaders while leaving our healthy cells intact?
The body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for indicators of disease, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.
These defenders utilize detectors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in countless variations.
This gives the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can attack the body.
Protectors of the Immune System
Researchers previously understood that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where immune cells develop.
This year's award honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.
It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.
The prize committee added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."
Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.
In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Studies
Professor Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus removed, leading to autoimmune disease.
He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from harming the body.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a gene critical for how T-regs operate.
"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a leading biological science specialist.
"The research is a striking illustration of how basic physiological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."
