Nobel Prize Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Discoveries
This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the immune system targets harmful pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.
Three renowned scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.
Their research uncovered specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells that could attacking the organism.
These discoveries are now paving the way for innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
The laureates will share a monetary award worth 11m SEK.
Crucial Discoveries
"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.
The trio's studies explain a core question: How does the defense system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?
The body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of infection, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.
Such cells utilize sensors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in countless variations.
This provides the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably creates immune cells that can attack the host.
Protectors of the Immune System
Researchers previously understood that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.
The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize other defenders that assault the healthy cells.
It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
A prize committee stated, "The findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative therapies, for example for tumors and immune disorders."
Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.
For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Studies
Prof Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.
He showed that introducing immune cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a system for blocking immune cells from harming the host.
Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how regulatory T-cells function.
"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.
"This research is a remarkable example of how basic physiological research can have broad consequences for public health."
