Prestigious Award Honors Groundbreaking Immune System Research

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while sparing the body's own cells.

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The work identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the organism.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

The laureates will share a monetary award worth 11m SEK.

Crucial Findings

"Their work has been essential for comprehending how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The team's studies explain a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

Our immune system employs immune cells that search for signs of disease, even pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such defenders utilize detectors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in countless combinations.

That provides the immune system the ability to combat a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

This year's award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel stated, "The findings have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer under attack. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other mice could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a striking example of how basic biological study can have broad consequences for human health."