🔗 Share this article

The Nobel Prize in medical science was awarded for transformative findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

Their work identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could harming the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

The laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their research has been essential for comprehending how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

This team's research explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

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

These cells employ sensors—called recognition units—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers earlier knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

The latest award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to disarm any immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Nobel panel added, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from attacking the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

He showed that introducing defense cells from other mice could stop the illness—implying there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," commented a leading physiology specialist.

"This work is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."