🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in medical science has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network targets dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.

The research uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the body.

The discoveries are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The laureates will share a prize fund valued at 11 million SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

This team's studies address a fundamental mystery: How does the immune system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

The body's protection system uses immune cells that search for signs of disease, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

Such defenders employ sensors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless variations.

This gives the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers earlier knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee added, "The findings have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the creation of new therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not under attack. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in mice and humans that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor vital for how T-regs operate.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science specialist.

"This research is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching implications for public health."