Prestigious Prize Recognizes Pioneering Body's Defenses Discoveries

This year's Nobel Prize in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of renowned researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this accolade.

Their work identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue defense cells capable of harming the body.

These findings are now paving the way for new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

The laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research explain a core question: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

Our immune system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

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

That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that can target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

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

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee stated, "These 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, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is not under attack. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor vital for how T-regs operate.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science specialist.

"This research is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological research can have broad consequences for human health."