🔗 Share this article

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

These laureates will share a monetary award valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been essential for comprehending how the immune system functions and the reason we do not all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research address a core mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from countless infections while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, even viruses and germs it has not met before.

These defenders employ sensors—known as recognition units—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That provides the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists previously understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

The latest award recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The prize committee added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative therapies, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in reducing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"The pioneering work has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a prominent physiology specialist.

"The research is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological study can have broad consequences for public health."