Prestigious Prize Recognizes Pioneering Body's Defenses Discoveries
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.
A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.
The research uncovered unique "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the body.
These discoveries are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.
These laureates will share a monetary award worth 11m SEK.
Decisive Findings
"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we do not all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.
The team's research explain a fundamental question: How does the immune system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our own tissues unharmed?
The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.
Such defenders employ sensors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.
This gives the defense network the capacity to combat a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may target the body.
Security Guards of the Immune System
Scientists earlier understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where white blood cells develop.
The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.
It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.
A Nobel panel stated, "These discoveries have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of new treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."
Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are focused on lowering their quantity.
For self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ failure.
Pioneering Studies
Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.
He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the body.
Mary 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 inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells operate.
"Their pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science expert.
"The research is a striking example of how basic biological study can have broad implications for human health."
