Nobel Prize Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Research
This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary findings that clarify how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.
A trio of esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.
Their research uncovered unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the body.
These findings are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.
The laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.
Decisive Discoveries
"Their work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.
The trio's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?
The immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.
Such cells utilize sensors—known as recognition units—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.
That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that may attack the body.
Security Guards of the Immune System
Researchers earlier understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells develop.
This year's Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the body to disarm any immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.
It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.
The prize committee added, "These discoveries have established a new field of research and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."
Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.
In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Experiments
Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.
He showed that introducing immune cells from other animals could stop the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in mice and people that resulted in the identification of a gene vital for how regulatory T-cells operate.
"Their pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science specialist.
"The research is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental physiological study can have broad consequences for public health."
