🔗 Share this article

This year's prestigious award in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

Three esteemed researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.

These findings are now paving the way for innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These laureates will divide a prize fund valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

This trio's research address a core mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

The body's protection system uses immune cells that search for signs of disease, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells employ sensors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of variations.

This provides the immune system the ability to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "The findings have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative therapies, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from attacking the growth, so studies are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus removed, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a gene critical for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," said a leading biological science specialist.

"The research is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."