🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network targets harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the body.

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

The laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's studies address a core question: In what way does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

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

These defenders employ detectors—known as receptors—that are generated by chance in a vast number of variations.

This provides the immune system the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.

The latest award honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

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

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the body from attacking the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their quantity.

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

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that injecting defense cells from other mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological research can have broad consequences for public health."